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"What's the worst that can happen?" I thought as I scooched my little car around the 'road closed' sign blocking through access to the pretty hamlet of Wixford. I
was in the Warwickshire countryside, just half an hour from town, in search of a beautiful beer garden in which I might see planes passing overhead in the direction of the Midlands Air
Festival. I don't love planes even half as much as I enjoy beer garden pints, so I took a glance at maps before we set out towards Alcester where I might enjoy both at the same time.
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IT'S FREE. Cheeky, I know, but judging by all the people sitting on the roofs of their cars along the country lanes on the approach to Alcester, I wasn't the only one that wanted
to see what it was all about without committing to spending all day at the show if I didn't enjoy it. The Fish Inn at Wixford was my destination, a boozer just over the A46 and the
River Arrow from Ragley Hall where the festival was taking place. The road closure sign did say that cars destined for Wixford were permitted and thank God it did, otherwise I wouldn't
have found pub heaven. The Fish Inn is a charming pub, run by the family-owned Honeybourne Pub Company, with exposed wooden beams and darling cosy old features. The garden, though? It's
exquisite. Pub perfection. We grabbed a couple of cold ones and found a picnic table easily, situated equidistant between the children's wooden play area and the banks of the river.
While kids clambered on the equipment, sprinting over to explore the circular nooks in the bridge spanning the river, there was nothing chaotic about any of it. I expected some screaming and
hollering but the calming riverside vibes seemed to keep everyone chill because the little ones were beautifully behaved. Groups of friends, families, couples and solo drinkers soaked up
the sun, on the wooden tables and benches, on fold-out chairs they'd brought themselves and on picnic blankets on the grass. One little girl bounced around in a rubber ring before
jumping on a kayak to paddle on the calm water with her dad. Birds swooped and soared, dragonflies shimmered by and, overhead, jets zoomed in the sky toward Ragley. No phone signal meant
everyone was in the moment, laughing and chatting and catching up, pausing to marvel at the sky when fighter jets swooped, biplanes loop-the-looped and planes with people standing on their
wings swooshed by. We even saw one drop parachuters, the team swirling in formation, smoke billowing to create patterns in the air. At that point, not that they could hear it, but everyone
in the beer garden cheered. We only popped in the pub to re-up on drinks and, when we couldn't possibly tear ourselves away much later in the day, to order food. I'll tell you
about that in another article; there's a £3 snack that deserves a story dedicated solely to it. I've never been to a more beautiful beer garden. Even if the planes hadn't been
zipping over our heads, it'd have been a ten-out-of-ten Saturday afternoon. We spent most of it in silence, sipping and admiring the bridge and feeling just very, very lucky to exist
in the centre of all of this green and pleasant land. Unreal! The little flashes of the Midlands Air Festival had me sold - next year I'm getting tickets so I can see it all up close.
But I'll be back to The Fish a hundred times before then. Have you ever seen a more gorgeous garden? Let me know in the comments below what I'm missing and make sure, if
you're going, to take a designated driver - they've got some good 0% beers on, I promise. _THE FISH INN IS AT WIXFORD, ALCESTER, B49 6DA. THIS REVIEW WAS INDEPENDENT, CONDUCTED AT
RANDOM AND ALL DRINKS WERE PAID FOR BY THE REPORTER._