Category — Countryside

Broadband – we can’t get enough of it. What was stunningly quick last year is now mind numbingly slow. Most of us will remember dial up internet connections that cost the earth and always lost the connection 10 minutes into an important 11 minute download – meaning another 11 minutes of waiting and paying. In this area of South Wales many homes can get 20Mb broadband meaning some pretty fast web speeds. And of course we all have mobile phones sprouting from our ears.

Surprisingly it’s not the same everywhere as there are some isolated areas of Britain where broadband looks to be many moons away. For instance one of the b&b’s that we use for those of our guests that want to get away from the pressures of the mobile phone and the PC Is The Lion Hotel in Gwytherin.

It was a foul day here in Wales when Juliana and I set off to mid Wales to visit one of the hotels that we use on our itineraries – The Lake Vyrnwy hotel in Powys, Mid Wales that has a great location overlooking the lake.

On the way we stopped off for morning coffee at Llangoed Hall, a country House hotel owned by Sir Bernard Ashley, widower of Laura Ashley. It was either that or The Little Chef in Builth Wells. No competition. Sorry Little Chef. There’s no reception desk at Llangoed Hall, so you really do feel that you’re walking into your very (very) rich uncle’s house. We wandered into the drawing room that looked out over the croquet lawn towards the farmland beyond, introduced ourselves to one of the staff, and ordered a coffee. I could have easily spent the rest of the day being waited on hand and foot reading the latest Grisham novel, but Lake Vyrnwy beckoned so off we set.