Blue Lion, Hardwick; 24 Feb 12

I’ve known Eddie for over 40 years. We were at Churchill together albeit that I was a year ahead of him. We were both natural scientists with a focus on chemistry and we both coxed although Eddie was more full-time whereas I just sort of filled in when I was needed.

Since then we’ve gone our separate ways with our own career zig-zags and international experience but we found ourselves back in Cambridge some years ago and so we meet regularly if not frequently for dinner. Our last dinner date (yesterday) was sandwiched between 2 holidays. The wife and I have just returned and Eddie’s off with Ruth on Sunday. We though we had a tale to tell. Eddie trumped us.

Juni and I were in Costa Rica which is a splendid place but ‘safe’. Great environment, friendly local people with pretty good English, abundant fresh food, German style beers, fine weather and excellent medical care (that’s another story). We went, we’ve got the photographs and I’ve got the T-shirt. But Ruth and Eddie are off to ride the trans Siberian railway from Vladivostock to Moscow via Mongolia. 13 nights on a train with Russian food and the tail end of a Russian winter! Wow.

Dinner was at the Blue Lion in Hardwick which is one of South Cambridgeshire’s newer gastro-pubs abd is excellent. It’s friendly, the service is prompt, there’s a varied menu and, most important, a good selection of wines by the glass. BTW in Costa Rica restaurants serve Chilean wines at sensible prices. Try getting those on the Siberian Express!

We ate: soup of the day in big servings with hunks of splendid fresh bread and salt and pepper crusted calamari with chilli sauce. Then we had pork belly, haddock and chips, and rib-eye. All splendid except the steak. To be honest we should have sent it back. It was overcooked and poorly butchered. But we didn’t and I expect that if we had it would have been replaced without challenge.

No deserts, we were full and there were none of my favorites, but a good espresso from a real coffee machine. Lots to drink and the 4 of us got out for under £100 plus service. As Ruth said: ‘maybe the last good meal we’ll have until we return from Russia’.