Sunday, May 31, 2015

Bowral

Rob's surgeon runs a regular clinic in Bowral in the beautiful Southern Highlands. It's a great excuse for an overnight stay and a little bit of indulgence for us - extra pleasurable this time because Rob got such a good report - he'll only need annual checks after this!

Our first stop was for lunch on Friday, at Mount Ashby Estate vineyard on Nowra Road a few minutes drive outside Bowral on the way to Fitzroy Falls.....


 ..and a chance to try the well recommended La Pallette Cafe, overlooking the green paddocks and clumps of very contented looking Holstein cows, in the property's restored original dairy building.


 

We were the first to arrive for lunch - very hungry after an earlyish start from Canberra......
We chose a sunny table looking out to the grassy terrace (and the cows).


The menu was very French inspired. My pumpkin, feta, caramelised onion tart with pear, blue cheese salad with pesto lived up to expectations - especially teamed with our bottle of Ashby Estate Cabernet Merlot (very good). Rob was also delighted with his Beef Bourguinon Pie, potato and beans and our shared (local) cheese plate with honey glazed nuts.


This visit we stayed at Peppers Craigieburn - a charming older style hotel a few minutes drive out of the main township of Bowral. Our room had beautiful views out to the golf course and the undulating hills beyond.  The weather turned quite cool during our stay and it was great to enjoy these views from the other side of the big picture windows.


Our previous choice in Bowral had been Links House, a much smaller hotel on the other side of the township.  Given the choice we'd go back there next time as we really enjoyed the cosy ambiance and the beautiful a la carte breakfasts. The Craigieburn breakfast buffet left a lot to be desired and we missed all the cosy personal touches of the much smaller guesthouse!

We were all smiles after seeing Rob's surgeon - and it's good not to have to see him again for quite a while - despite the charms of this pretty town in this beautiful part of the world.

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