The purpose of going to Lancaster was to attend the JULES Annual Science meeting and training course, running this year from 28-29 June 2016 at the Lancaster Environment Centre. For those not in the know, JULES stands for the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator and is a community land surface model that evolved from the Met Office Surface Exchange Scheme. That's quite enough science for this entry - for more scientific information about JULES and the meeting itself, please see my other blog.
Monday 27 June
We left relatively early in the morning, in bright sun. However, this soon diminished as we drove northwards, becoming progressively cloudier and darker, and after a long slow drive up the M40 and M42 we stopped for lunch just north of Birmingham. This, I will admit, was not a gastronomic highlight. The service station was very busy, and we just bought a simple sandwich and cake from Costa. Leaving the service station, the roads were very busy as expected, and my hope that it would clear once on the M6 soon proved to be overly optimistic. The motorway, although fluid in places, seemed to have roadworks every 10 miles or so, meaning it was stop-start virtually all the way.
Finally, after a 6-hour long and tiring drive, we finally arrived at Lancaster around 5:30 PM in the pouring rain. We found our hotel, The Tollhouse Inn, easily, nicely located on the main road in between the city centre and the University. We checked-in with no problems, having plenty of time to unpack and recover in our comfy room - this was on the first floor via a large lift, quiet and warm with a large double-bed with plenty of space around it, tea and coffee making facilities (including biscuits!), and a good-sized bathroom. Outside the room, the hotel itself was a very nice old-looking building, with quirky corridors and a well-stocked pub and bar dining area downstairs.
Once we had unpacked, we went downstairs for dinner. The place would probably describe itself as a gastro-pub, because the menu was impressive and contained all the usual pub classics as well as some more fancy dishes. According to the menu, most of their food was locally produced, the majority coming from Lancashire itself. There was also an impressive array of local beers and ales, although it being evening time we stuck to wine and enjoyed a couple of glasses of their Chilean Sauvignon blanc. I started with one of their specials, a whole roasted quail stuffed with apricot and sage, whilst Debbie had a Dutch vegetable soup with ginger.
The quail was lovely and the stuffing accompanied it perfectly but, despite being small, it did feel a bit like I was eating a main course as a starter. The soup smelled lovely and apparently tasted great, although it was incredibly thick and more like a puree than a soup. We then moved onto a main course, with a classic battered haddock and thick cut chips for me and a hanging kebab/skewer of roasted vegetables and halloumi for Debbie. Both of these were very nice, albeit enormous. I had ordered the small version, which still resembled a whale, so heaven only knows what the large version was like! We were too full for puddings and, given the purpose of the trip was work, managed to get an early night. An impressive first meal.
Tuesday 28 June
The following morning, after a very restful night, we got up early to make the most of their breakfast before my meeting began. This was also impressive, with a self-service continental buffet and then several hot choices. We shared an enormous full Lancashire breakfast, comprising sausages, black pudding, a fried egg, mushroom, tomato, hash brown and baked beans. I'm not quite sure what made it a Lancashire breakfast as opposed to a full English breakfast, perhaps the local sausages? But it was very very nice.
The rest of the day was taken up by work, and is reported in my other blog. To be honest, it was a good thing we were going nowhere as the rain was heavy and relentless. Lunch was the usual university affair, with a selection of meat, fish and vegetarian sandwiches and rolls, accompanied by juice, tea and coffee. The conference dinner that evening, however, was really quite good. There was no choice as is usually the way, although I had alerted them beforehand that Debbie was vegetarian so she and many others were able to eat. We started with melted brie covered in breadcrumbs, accompanied by a cranberry sauce. This was followed by roast lamb, which was surprisingly tender, accompanied by a potato fondant and a selection of vegetables. The vegetarians were given a rather odd looking chickpea curry, which looked rather uninviting but was apparently very edible. We finished with an extremely rich and indulgent chocolate tart, and so all in all it was a very good meal.
Wednesday 29 June
We again got up very early, to enjoy another breakfast before I got on with some work prior to rejoining the meeting. We did the same as the day before, sharing an enormous full English breakfast, which again was excellent.
The rest of the day was again all science-related, and we returned to the hotel at around 6:30 PM after a long but interesting and thought-provoking day. Given the intense and monsoon-like rain (although without the heat of a proper monsoon) outside, we decided to eat in again. On this occasion, we shared a starter of an asparagus and blue cheese frittata, which was essentially very similar to a Spanish tortilla and was really very nice, although I couldn't really taste the blue cheese. For a main course, I went for the roasted sea bream on crushed new potatoes whilst Debbie had the squash and blue cheese Wellington - the fish was very flavoursome, although perhaps slightly overdone for my liking, and the Wellington was apparently very good. We were again too full for puddings.
Thursday 30 June
After another restful night, we again woke early to make the most of breakfast before the meeting restarted. On this occasion, I went for their signature breakfast of Eggs Benedict - a perfectly poached egg covered in Hollandaise sauce and sitting on a bed of cooked ham and an English muffin. This was really very good - the muffin was slightly dry, but the sauce made up for this. Debbie tried the vegetarian version of the full Lancashire breakfast, which came with 2 large vegetarian sausages which were apparently very good.
Again, the rest of the day was taken up by science, until the meeting finished around mid-afternoon. Given the long drive, we had decided to stay another night, so we spent an hour or so driving around Lancaster to see the sights. We had hoped to get up to the large Lancaster Castle on the hill overlooking the city, but it was shut so instead we walked around the impressive Lancaster Cathedral.
Returning to the hotel, again in heavy and seemingly unending rain, we again decided to eat in. Not very adventurous I realise, but it was so wet outside that we couldn't envisage yet another soaking. After a drink in the bar, we had another lovely meal in the restaurant, beginning with chicken liver pate for me and goat's cheese balls for Debbie. The pate was lovely and was almost a mousse, served with a beetroot chutney and sourdough. For a main course, I had an enormous seafood pie containing haddock, salmon and prawns, which was really soft and moist with a rich creamy sauce. In contrast, Debbie had a cheese and onion tart, which seemed to go down very well. Given that it was our last night, we finished by sharing a white chocolate and raspberry mousse, which had a lovely silky texture and went well with the accompanying shortbread biscuit. So again, another very good meal.Friday 1 July
For our last morning, we again got up early to make the most of their excellent breakfast, again sharing a large full English (or rather Lancashire) grill. Once packed, we left the hotel, again in the rain, and rejoined the road. The journey back was equally long and tiring as the way up - constant roadworks and therefore traffic all the way down the M6, heavy traffic around Birmingham and on the M40, then slow moving on the M4 back to Reading. Lunch was again a gastronomic lowlight, being a sandwich in another crowded service station. Finally, at about 5:30 PM and after another long long day, we returned home.
Apart from one hour, I honestly don't think we saw the sun once since leaving the Thames Valley.
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