Love it when plans fall into place – especially the spontaneous kind.

It was another long-distance drive today, with so many miles of slow-going rural roads and winding single carriageways that Teko said was just as rough as our six-hour drive from Paris to Amsterdam three years ago. To break the trip and get some physical and anxiety relief, we decided to stop by small-town Shrewsbury, via a completely last-minute online search, and found Henry Tudor House, a British restaurant housed in a 15th century Tudor building. Unique and interesting at the same time.

Parking was much easier to find in Shrewsbury than in previous other towns and soon we were sitting in our own spacious banquette in the restaurant’s sun-roofed annex – sadly next to a loud, eccentric gay man and a few tables away from a screaming infant with lungs of steel. It wasn’t a great start.

As we tried to keep zen from all the noise, I was somewhat confident that Teko would find what he wanted from their extensive menu, and luckily I was right – we both got the butternut squash soup, which was warmly delicious, Teko got the trusty house burger, and I opted for the substantial Beef Wellington.

With the attentive service, great food, and eventual quiet once the noisemakers left, we got something to fill the tummies and the respite we were looking for, enough to continue with the drive to our temporary home base in Snowdonia.  If this is what this part of Wales has to offer, I’m already looking forward to what happens next.