Gidleigh Park でのボクシングデー（１２月２６日）はやっと良いお天気になりました。
It was nice and sunny on Boxing Day!
この時期のホテル滞在は大体３泊か４泊がパックになっていて、１泊、２泊は出来ないホテルが多く、Gidleigh Park も３泊か４泊で全食事込みのパックになっています。その中にワインテイスティングやボクシングデーのダートムアを歩くウォーキングも組み込まれていて、地元のガイドさん付きなので安心です。最初の年は強い雨が降っていたので参加せず、去年はわたしも夫と一緒に参加しましたが、今年はガーデニングで腰が痛くなってしまいとても坂道をサクサク歩くことは無理だったので、夫だけ参加しました。良いお天気だったのですが、途中で数分だけ結構ザーっと降ったそうで、上がったときに虹が出たそうです。(腰痛は少しずつ良くなって今日は随分と楽でした。ただ、球根の芽がどんどん出てきているので今日は怖々ですが少しマルチングをしたので、明日どうなっているか少し心配。）
When you stay at a hotel at this time of year, most hotels let you stay only when you stay for 3 or 4 nights and Gidleigh Park is the same. You get a whole package of 3 nights or 4 nights including all the meals and our hotel included a wine tasting session and a walk on the moor with a local guide. It was raining heavily when we stayed there in 2019, then we cancelled our booking in 2020 because of the pandemic. Last year it was good weather on the Boxing Day so we both joined the walk. However, this year, I had quite a bad lower back ache and I wasn’t able to walk steep hills or stairs at a normal speed so just my husband joined the walk. Although it was mostly sunny, apparently it did rain for a few minutes, then stopped, when they saw a rainbow. These photos are those my husband took. (My back is gradually getting better and I felt much better today. However, we saw quite a lot of new bulb shoots coming out so we did some more mulching in the back garden. I was trying not to do too much so hope I didn’t do any further damage, but we’ll see tomorrow.)
この日のランチは、アフタヌーンティーが出ました。イギリスではアフタヌーンティーは遅めの午後の場合が多いのですが、この日はランチタイムでした。１番下のサンドイッチはわたしの分だけで、夫の分はスモークサーモンなどが使われていて別のお皿に盛り付けて下さっていました。
They served an afternoon tea instead of lunch on this day. Usually an afternoon tea in England is served late in the afternoon, but they served it at lunch time, which was good. The bottom layer is just for me with the sandwiches that have no fish or seafood, my husband’s sandwiches were on another plate.
出てきた時に、なんだか２段目が寂しいなぁ、と思ったのですが、やはり２０１９年に行ったときは４種類ずつ、昨年は３種類ずつあったのが今年は２種類ずつに減っていました。わたしはこれで十分ですが（わたしは２段目はマカロンだけいただいてもう１つは夫が食べました）、物足りない方も結構いらっしゃるんじゃないかな、と思います。このところの急激な物価高で、こういう形で節約されているところが多いように思います。
When I saw this 3 tier plate, I thought it looked as if it was missing something. When I looked up in my blog for past times we had Christmas there I realised that there were 4 of each on the 2nd tier in 2019, 3 of each last year and only 2 of each this year. I’m OK with it because I don’t eat a lot of sweets at a time and just a macaron was enough after the sandwiches and 2 scones (my husband had mine as well), but I must say it does not look very luxurious with a very empty-looking plate and I feel some people would have been disappointed. As the prices of everything are going up, many hotels and restaurants are reducing the amount as a means to reduce the cost.
