retiredmartin

Last night’s post from a car park in Seaham wasn’t TOO bad, so I’ll press on with Pub No.2 from Hawes.

There are 4 main activities for folk visiting Hawes;

1. Checking in to your B & B
2. Buying new walking boots and waterproofs
3. Buying Wensleydale from the cheese factory run by Wallace & Gromit
4. Visiting a pub

Theoretically, there a fifth activity, but no-one REALLY goes for a walk in Hawes.

Not with THREE pubs in a row.

I’d left my GBG in the campervan, and there’s no t’internet in Yorkshire, so I wasn’t certain whether my second tick was actually The Crown or The Board.

Let’s face it; they’re interchangeable, virtually identical, and I was going to do them all anyway in indecent haste lest they shut at 7pm due to lack of custom.

The Board had the little sticker in the window, so I I started there.

At the door I was greeted by a rather wonderful bar”person” who was running between the bar and the outside tables.

The interior was the very definition of “plain”, and the sun was struggling through the cloud, so on a whim I sat outside.

Not my preferred place in the pub, and BRAPA is seeking legal review as he believes a beer garden isn’t a full tick.

But I’d promised Mrs RM I’d try to keep out of busy inside rooms, and as it happens all the life was outside anyway. And without the music it was easier to overhear other peoples conversations, which is 39% of the reason we go to pubs.

And there’s little better than the excited chat of Northern gentlefolk.

Especially accompanied by a crisp pint of Keighley’s finest.

To be honest, Landlord is often a bit thin and disappointing, whether in Soho or Sowerby (see: the Landlord test).

This was a 3.5. The lacings never lie.

The two couples either side were comparing holiday plans.  Amsterdam and Seaton Carew I think. The more local couple had never been to Flamborough. How is that possible ?

“Are you doing top-ups ?”  said the jolly fellow Tim Taylor toper.  “Yeah, £4 a pint” said our estimable barmaid.

Q – Should you tip for outside service, even if you don’t want it, and they don’t take cash ?

Time for a walk, I think.