Unintended adventures

So - S had the day off work and a few days ago we'd read about the CAMRA cider pub of the year and how it was a micro-pub on a railway station in Norfolk.

We both agreed it was a place we should visit "at some point".  We have lots of these places but we found ourselves looking immediately at how long it would take to get there by train.  Just over an hour, came the answer.

So we found ourselves on a train to Downham Market via Cambridge yesterday.  Probably the quickest ever execution of an idea we've had.

It was pouring down, so we donned full waterproofs to walk to Hitchin station but the weather didn't dampen our spirits.

There were apparently two pubs in the the town in the GBG - The Railway Arms and the White Hart. In addition, the description of the town made it sound like a charming place to visit.

It wasn't.

In fact, it was....well...shut.

Neither of the two GBG pubs were open, nor was just about anywhere else, so we stumbled into a hotel bar for some weather respite, a loo break and a pint of Elgood's Black Dog Mild, and one of Adnams Southwold bitter.   Neither beers were great and the bar atmosphere wasn't conducive to extending our stay.

A quick surf to "beerintheevening" via intermittent mobile phone signal indicated a couple of other pubs but the descriptions weren't flattering.  With about 45 mins to kill to the next train, we walked into the Live and Let Live for a swift pint of Doom Bar and to watch some football.  A much nicer experience...though not one that in anyway made up for the rest of the town.

We hopped on a train, got back to Cambridge and were, again, disappointed to find some of the usual pubs there closed.  Eventually we got to the Kingston Arms which was busy but a delight and relief to find.  It was my first visit there.

They had a great range of beers on - including my erstwhile favourite ever beer:  Thornbridge Jaipur.  S went to the loo after requesting a Buntingford Oatmeal Stout.  By the time he'd returned I'd bought the beer and found a seat.  He looked at the pale beer in my glass and said "...you didn't...?"
At 5.9%, it's not a beer I can drink a lot of...leastways, not without falling over...and we hadn't eaten since breakfast.
In fact, I hadn't...I'd opted for Oakham JHB which is another favourite and much less likely to induce coma.

Second pint was Jaipur, however, and although it was delicious it doesn't have the wow factor for me that it did the first time I tried it.  I sneaked in another half of it too just to finish off. By this time we'd eaten (who knew hummous and chips could be such a nice sharing combination?) and S had tried a cider and a perry, we'd also played a couple of hands of Fluxx (a great pub table game, we find).

We strolled round to the station via a shortcut we stumbled on and mused on the day.  It wasn't quite what we'd planned (and part of this was our fault since we could have checked opening times on line but didn't) but we'd both had a good time together.  We reminded ourselves that if you try new things, and experiment you occasionally get a dull day in Downham Market...
...on the other hand you can also get a fantastic holiday in Plockton or an unexpected beer festival in Sheringham...and I wouldn't like to not have stumbled on those.