Getting There: October 23

 Our overnight KLM flight to Amsterdam from Minneapolis was uneventful and even pleasant. Ruth and I sat in a row by ourselves, right in the bulkhead with plenty of room to stretch our legs. We had feasted in the Delta lounge at MSP prior to boarding, so we didn’t need the airplane meals. 

Not much sleep, but we resisted watching movies, resting and reading instead. After 2 hours in Amsterdam airport, we boarded our flight for Manchester and landed in a little over an hour.

We breezed through customs, found our luggage immediately, and managed to find our way to the Herz rental car place (on a bus to the Delta Hotel). It turns out that Herz runs its rental business in the Delta Hotel parking lot. A rainy morning, but the M56 was not busy, and we were soon tootling down the highway. It’s an easy 2 1/2-hour drive to Presteigne from Manchester airport, but Ruth was fighting sleep, so we stopped in Shrewsbury to get groceries, then in Craven Arms a bit further down the road to get soup and bread. We found the most delightful Mennonite cafe, so clean and inviting, with fresh-baked bread and hymns playing. The women wore the caps and long dresses of the Amish. We enjoyed our bowls of bean soup and cheese scones with butter, then purchased a loaf of spelt bread and a carrot cake. 

Much fortified, we drove on to Lingen, then used our ///3words app to find our cottage (///reefs.enlighten.funky), which worked perfectly. It was still raining at that time, so we bumped and swerved our way down the muddy, rocky track to the cottage—a bit daunting. 

This track was about an eighth of a mile long and treacherous in places.

We had to maneuver carefully to avoid bumping the chassis on rocks.

A bit scary the first time down, in the rain.

However, the cottage was everything we could have asked for in the way of quirkiness and character. 

The master bedroom, which was as large as the living room below

and had its own sink and French doors out to the garden.

It also had its own couch,which looks lovely but is

lumpy and painful to sit on.

Ruth’s bedroom. The beds were fortunately very comfortable.

Ruth’s window.

The kitchen, flanked by narrow, steep stairs to the bedrooms.

A painting on the wall to gaze on when going down the stairs.

Unfortunately, we always had to go backwards down the stairs, they were so steep.

We enjoyed many mornings and evenings of cozy fires.

An ancient soup tureen that guarded a tiny and rather useless window.

Luke, our host, is a warm and welcoming fellow in his 40s who seems ambitious and yet befuddled as to how to manage two post-Elizabethan buildings (he lives in the Crooked House up the drive, built in early 1600s) and look after them properly. 

Luke’s house. He lives mainly in the left portion, which is habitable. 

An old piggery, with a dovecote in the background.

Now used for storing wood.

Luke keeps a flock of black sheep from Normandy,

apparently the smallest sheep in the world.

They keep escaping their pen.

The first thing we did was start a fire in the wood stove and turn on the wall heater; the place was freezing. We explored, unpacked, and rested for a few minutes before driving the several miles into Presteigne and seeing Teresa. She seemed delighted to show us her new home and all the changes she’s made to it since moving in. What a lovely home she has, in an older part of Presteigne, a vibrant arts community on the Welsh border. We stayed for butternut soup, whole grain bread, pate, and cheese, finishing up with apple crumble. Then we made our way back to the cottage, slipping and bumping down the track again. It was heaven to climb, shivering, into our comfortable beds with great down comforters, and to succumb to sleep at last.

More photos from the cottage:

The living area.

Flowers Teresa gave us on our first day. They stayed fresh all week.