Axbridge

Last week, I wrote a post about our plan to try and go on more weekend adventures as a family to places nearby that we haven't visited before. Last weekend saw our first West Country adventure of 2015 to Axbridge. It's a forty minute drive from Bristol, but feels a world away from the city life that we are used to. The centre of the village is so small that it is impossible to get lost, and you can stand in the village square and see all of the different places to eat while standing on the same spot!

We settled with The Oak House restaurant as our choice for lunch, and enjoyed a coffee served with biscotti while we waited for our table to be prepared. The atmosphere was very welcoming, with comfy sofas to sit on while we drank our coffees, and a warming open fire crackling away. The food was delicious - I ordered gnocchi with sundried tomatoes, mozarella and rocket, and at first glance, it looked like the chef had forgotten to include the sun dried tomatoes. It turned out, the gnocchi were stuffed with the mozarella and tomatoes, which worked so well. I had a delicious milk chocolate tart for dessert, served with chocolate ice cream. The restaurant felt very spacious, and there were just a few other families enjoying dinner, so it was wonderful that when Ruby wanted to walk around and explore, there was ample space for her to do so without us feeling like we were getting in the way.

After lunch, we walked to the reservoir, and I loved spotting all of the wonderful names on the cottages, There were a number of stalls outside of people's homes selling their produce, ranging from vegetables and eggs, to honey made from local hives.

We took a few wrong turnings on the way to the reservoir and kept ending up in fields with ponies in. I felt a bit sad for this pony that was tethered and unable to roam around the lush green field that it lived in. The reservoir was sign posted, and it wasn't so much a case of it being hard to find, just that we followed our noses rather than a map!

The reservoir itself was very peaceful, and our daughter loved watching the ducks and gulls swim and fly around - there were hundreds of them! 

I would happily visit Axbridge again - the proprietor of The Oak House highly recommended returning in Summer to enjoy dining in their garden, and I would love to try out the tea shop that was recommended to me.