Café

I don't usually leave my desk during the week very often (except for making endless cups of tea and cooking lunch), but a friend of mine managed to persuade me to join her for coffee at this new café she heard about...
I immediately surmised that she didn't want to test it alone in case it turned out to be another one of those dusty coffee shops with plastic tablecloths favoured by curly-haired grannies!

Anyway, she picked me up in the afternoon and we drove for about twenty minutes along the country road when we came upon this charming half-timbered house covered in ivy. Too idyllic for words!

It turns out the owner (a therapist) opened up this café as a 'hobby' - but the people kept coming in droves, and when we arrived it was already buzzing. So now she gets up pretty early each day to bake a couple of fabulous cakes along with a few tasty savoury snacks. They serve delicious coffee and the tea comes in these enormous white mugs. Best of all - it's affordable. Her husband helps her out, too. It seems she's spending more & more time at the café than in her office.

The clientele is mixed. Thirty-something couples, tour groups and yes, the ubiquitious grannies I mentioned earlier. But all in all, the atmosphere was lively, friendly and no one pressured us to shift our bottoms - even after we sat there for almost two hours ;-)

Yup. I can definitely recommend it to visitors. It's also child-friendly with kids books to keep them entertained.
In summer they do BBQ out on the terrace. In winter they make a cosy fire indoors. Hey - and
if you still feel depressed after stuffing yourself with apple cake, cream and cappuccino you can still go and book a session next door...