The plan was to start and finish work early, head off to the hotel at about 4, grab some dinner then race off to Blackheath Concert Halls to see our friend Ed and his band play at Tedd-Fest, before coming back to relax at the hotel for the night.
We arrived at Rowhill Grange just as it was starting to get dark. The hotel is set quite far back off the main road amongst beautiful gardens and some quite striking trees. We couldn't resist taking some pictures of the moon through the branches of a large spruce.
On arrival at reception the concierge asked if we were the musicians for that evening's charity event. Do we look like musicians? Oh, apparently we do. Easy mistake then! After assuring him we weren't, we checked in to find that Bob had not only paid for a night in the luxury suite but he had also paid for a meal for two, which he had booked for 8pm.
Sadly, the best laid plans and all that, the booking time for the meal meant that we weren't able to make it back to Blackheath in time for the gig but we will definitely go to his next one.
Our suite was on the second floor, up some winding stairs and en route, the concierge gave us a little history. The original building was built as a Summer House for Alice Alexander for her 18th birthday in 1868 and the rooms we were staying in were her original living quarters. He did assure us it had been redecorated since then though.
When we arrived at the room we found an ice bucket with champagne and a beautiful bunch of flowers from Bob. The room itself was lovely; all the mod-cons, comfy chairs and a TV. Now that our plans had changed and driving was no longer required, we elected to open the champagne, kick off our shoes and relax until dinner. The TV in the room appeared to only have one channel working, which just happened to be one of the Sky Sports channels and it just happened to be showing a repeat of Monday Night's RAW, which we hadn't watched. Oh what a shame. Comfy seats, champagne and a couple of hours watching wrestling and chatting. Bliss!
Just before 8, we pulled our shoes back on and headed down to the dining room for an incredible meal.
They even had gluten-free bread! We cracked open a bottle of Pinot Grigio Blush (a very nice rosé) had a starter of wood pigeon and fig, followed by quite possibly the biggest and most filling steak either of us has ever eaten. A 12oz Sirloin, which given that we both like it very rare, was still 12oz when it arrived along with a stack of chips and a tomato stuffed with mushroom purée.
Two hours later, full of very good food, wine and champagne, we hauled ourselves up the few flights of stairs to our suite on the second floor, removed our shoes and plonked ourselves on the extremely comfy bed to relax while our food went down. Before we knew it, it was morning and time to get up! It really was a relaxing getaway.
No comments:
Post a Comment