We just got back last night from England and it was a wonderful visit.
We went to my stepson's wedding in North Devon in a little village called Merton, close to Winkleigh in Devon.
We left Heathrow after picking up our car and 7 hours later we arrived at our hotel. Needless to say we got lost... It was called Hotel Beasford. Its a lovely hotel on a hill with fabulous views overlooking the Devon countryside. We arrived on Friday nite and had drinks with everyone until about midnite then hit the sack.
Woke up in the morning and had a lovely full english breakfast and then got ready for the wedding which was in a small village called Merton. One church 15th century, one pub called the Maltscoop and one post office.
The ceremony was really lovely, the pastor was a real character, quite young and very enthusiastic. He was grining throughout the whole ceremony and the kids were running everywhere.
My husbands granddaughter started to disrobe on the way down the aisle! Hee! She was so cute, like to be nude apparently...only 18 months old.
They had picked some lovely hymns and then were were off next door to the village hall where they had beautiful tables set up for a really nice meal. We had starters of hummus, roasted veggies and pate, then a main meal of red cabbage, broccoli rabe, porchetta and garlic roasted potatoes or new devon potatoes with mint. It was a really good meal.
They had a master of ceremonies, a friend who had imbibed a bit too much but was hysterical and had many great speeches. After all that they cleared away the tables and started the disco. It was really fun, at one point everybody went outside for a tug of war which was really hysterical and messy, in all their good clothes as well!
It was a really great night. The next day we were off to Holyport, Maidenhead where my mother in law lives and we spent the next week visiting family and the weather was beautful!!
We ate many lunchs out, espcially one place called The George which is just a five minute walk from mils.
http://www.thegeorgeonthegreen.com/The food there is fantastic! We went into Henley and had drinks on the river at The Angel pub and went into Windsor one day...another day in Marlow and also in Bray at The Crown Pub right across the street from The Fat Duck restaurant.
We have many friends and family there so it was action packed with a BBQ on saturday in the backyard. It was 80 degrees!!! We really lucked out on the weather. We had such a lovely visit and if we were wondering if we were going to change our minds about moving back to England we haven't.
We were sad to come home and will be putting the house up for sale as quickly as possible!!
