# Out for my First Christmas lunch of the year....Pics



## hollydolly (Nov 22, 2021)

yesterday some friends and I and my daughter  met up  for our first Christmas lunch of the year to a riverside pub 120 mile round trip from here.

Hopefully  we won't get a lockdown and it will be our last...as happened last year and the year before.

Anyway, we'd booked for the early sitting at Noon and I'd got there about 11.30, and it was freezing cold but gloriously sunny, so while the pub was empty of people  I took photos of the outside and inside....

Within minutes of us all sitting down to order, the skies got thick and grey and it SNOWED... !! so I'm pleased I got these pics first..another 1/2 hour and I'd have  missed out..

These first 2 were taken from the bridge


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## hollydolly (Nov 22, 2021)




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## hollydolly (Nov 22, 2021)




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## Pepper (Nov 22, 2021)

The canal looks so familiar.  What's the name of the place?


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## hollydolly (Nov 22, 2021)




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## hollydolly (Nov 22, 2021)

Pepper said:


> The canal looks so familiar.  What's the name of the place?


We have hundreds of canals in the UK..but this is actually the River Cam in Cambridgeshire


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## hollydolly (Nov 22, 2021)




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## Pepper (Nov 22, 2021)

Lovely!  I always love your photos.  You know what an anglophile I am!


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## hollydolly (Nov 22, 2021)

These fisherman were on the opposite side of the bridge.. sitting there freezing , I don't know how they do it..







View from the opposite bank




..and the view on the opposite bank


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## SeaBreeze (Nov 22, 2021)

Glad you were able to get together with your daughter and some friends Holly, thank you for sharing those photos, looks like a lovely place and area.


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## hollydolly (Nov 22, 2021)

SeaBreeze said:


> Glad you were able to get together with your daughter and some friends Holly, thank you for sharing those photos, looks like a lovely place and area.


First time I'd been there myself SB... it sits on the river just about a mile or less from the nearest little village...


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## StarSong (Nov 22, 2021)

Beautiful photos.  Sounds like a wonderful day with your daughter and friends.  A nice way to kick off the holidays!


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## Ruth n Jersey (Nov 22, 2021)

@hollydolly what great photos. I love the rustic look of the place you had lunch. 
Decorated nicely for Christmas.
The last few years the restaurants around here didn't have much of anything in the way of decorations.  Even the malls had nothing and that was way before covid.


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## hollydolly (Nov 22, 2021)

Ruth n Jersey said:


> @hollydolly what great photos. I love the rustic look of the place you had lunch.
> Decorated nicely for Christmas.
> The last few years the restaurants around here didn't have much of anything in the way of decorations.  Even the malls had nothing and that was way before covid.


yes like so many of our pubs .. now mostly  Gastro pubs they are old buildings, so when they're decorated for the holidays it brings them alive , and looking very pretty...

I was right to take the pictures when I did because within 1/2 an hour the whole pub was full of diners... The manager ( in the red shirt) was telling us all about how busy it gets particularly in summer because of the outside river view...but we had to laugh because the pub serves food until well into the night at there it was full to bursting at mid-day, so it would be very busy during the Christmas tun up too..


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## Pink Biz (Nov 22, 2021)

Fabulous!


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## Capt Lightning (Nov 22, 2021)

I miss a pint of real ale in an English country pub.   The Hampshire village where I lived had a fantastic family owned brewery which served around 120 pubs in the south of England.  Then they sold out to Fullers of London and the brewery was converted to 'yuppie' apartments.

The Bat and ball, a few miles away, is famous in cricket history.  In 1777  the local village team beat the best of England's cricketers and secured the Hambledon club as the foremost club in England.  Many of the rules of cricket were agreed and written in the "Bat and Ball".  It remains a place of pilgrimage for cricket lovers from across the world.


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## Jules (Nov 22, 2021)

Thanks for sharing the pictures of this lovely setting, @hollydolly 

Gastro Pub vs a Pub - I gather this means it now serves food.


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## Tish (Nov 22, 2021)

@hollydolly Beautiful pictures, I hope you had a great day.


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## hollydolly (Nov 22, 2021)

Tish said:


> @hollydolly Beautiful pictures, I hope you had a great day.


yes we did have a lovely time @Tish  it's been a while since I've been out for lunch , so it made a lovely change ...


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