Last Friday we decided on a few civilized evening drinks across the river, where most of the bars have just reopened after the January floods. It was not much of a success as, in some cases, “re-opened” meant “open if you don’t mind sitting among hastily-hired external cooling units because the new fridges haven’t arrived yet”, or “open if you don’t mind a very restricted selection of beer”. In other cases, it meant “open if you don’t mind eye-wateringly high prices for (admittedly excellent) beer while being squeezed like a sardine among the throng”. With hindsight maybe a Friday evening wasn’t the best choice to try out new venues.

However, it was a gorgeous, warm evening, and just right for some sunset photography.

Having had one beer at each of the likely-looking establishments on the North side we decided that South of the river is more to our taste and ended up back at our usual haunt a worryingly convenient 2-minute walk from our flat. An excellent choice of beers in a busy but not overcrowded bar, a civilized atmosphere and available seats all made the local choice a no-brainer for us.