B2B Day 21 Holt to Castle Combe: A Circuitous Journey

We had a slow start leaving Holt this morning. We visited St. Katharine's Church where we had attended the service on Sunday, because we hadn't gotten any photos then. There were two women praying there, so we joined them to pray for their church's desire to reach out to the community, and for ours to do the same. We also took a few photos.

St Katharine's, with red altar cloth for Pentecost Sunday

We journeyed onwards to Melksham, and decided to have lunch there. After looking at a few places, we ate at Warrens Bakery because the Cornish pasties looked so good. It was a cold and rainy day today, with a high of 11 C, so a hot pasty was just the thing, and the bakery was warm inside, too. We shared a large traditional Cornish pasty, and then succumbed to the temptation of sharing an Eton mess meringue (which was interestingly also labelled a white chocolate raspberry meringue in a different part of the shop). It was good, but a bit sweet. We decided we like actual Eton mess better (meringue, fruit, and whipped cream). We then walked back to the Arts Cafe we had seen, run by the Rotary Club, for a cuppa tea. It had a nice community feel (as did Warrens), with many people there enjoying tea or lunch together. We liked it. 

We had the opportunity to revisit Lacock again, but decided to go past it, since we had thoroughly seen it the day before.

We next came to Chippenham, where we rested for awhile outside on metal seats. Cold metal seats. But at least we didn't freeze to them!

We finally arrived at Castle Combe, our day's destination, around 3:00 p.m. For those of you who would trouble to look at a map (or know the area), our route from Holt to Melksham to Chippenham to Castle Combe would seem quite roundabout and circuitous. It was. You might also think our arrival time of 3:00 is remarkably swift, given the distances covered. You would be right.  

Of course . . . we did take the bus! 😊

Yesterday evening and this morning it had rained heavily. The weather forecast for today was dire, with lots of rain and wind, and we did not want to arrive at a very nice hotel, the Castle Inn in Castle Combe, exhausted and mud-covered after a 13.5 mile walk. So we did decide to take the bus instead. We were ultimately glad we did, though a bit sad that we missed what would have been a beautiful walk if it had been sunny.

For one of our trips, Ken had long wanted to "splash out" on a stay in a special hotel, and what better place to stay than in Castle Combe, one of the candidates for the most beautiful village in England? The Castle Inn certainly lived up to our expectations. It was old and quirky, but also comfortable and modern. We visited the church in Castle Combe, and above the door it said, "The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all."

We had been worried that as walkers with no dressy clothes we might not feel comfortable or quite right at the Castle Inn, but we felt completely at ease and welcome there. The church seemed to echo what we felt as we found rest and welcome at what was potentially a rather posh place.

We were in room 8, and our route took us up stairs and around several bends,

Part of the circuitous journey to our room—note the quirky shape of the door frame

making us obey at a couple of points signs that said "mind the step" and "mind your head" (except for Sara, whose head was low enough not to be a problem), taking us across a flight of stairs and up another few stairs to our room.

Ken going upstairs to our room (note room 1 is below us)

The room was lovely, under the roof beams with dormer windows.

Our beautiful room, complete with Combe Bear

A tub!

Sara has had a couple of things about herself confirmed on this trip: 1) she loves living in small houses/small places (like a shepherd's hut) and 2) she loves being in rooms under the roof, with sloping ceilings.

We went down to dinner at 6:30. Ken ordered the fish and chips, and also a side of broccoli in Hollandaise sauce with hazelnuts that was absolutely delicious, the best broccoli dish ever. Sara ordered the chicken. We both thought the food was really good. The portions were reasonably sized so that we had room for dessert. We shared a "warm date pudding" (which was really sticky toffee pudding by another name, but just as good) and a baked Alaska. It was the best baked Alaska Ken had ever had! This was the joke suggested by the manager who served us, because Ken had said we had never had baked Alaska before. It was the best, but also the only baked Alaska we had ever had. We both thought it was delicious, but we were also surprised to discover that the outer baked meringue tasted exactly like toasted marshmallows! 

After dinner we relaxed in a little room adjacent to one of the several dining areas. In that area, a group of golfers were dining--the "quieter" group. There was a group of about 12 golfers in a different room who seemed to be a much more boisterous group. In this little lounge we read and used the computer until it was time for bed.

In the Snug at the Castle