This is such a great thread. 
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A memorial near me includes two groups of surnames - each with three names. It’s hard to comprehend how the parents coped with the death of three sons.
Here’s a link to Harry’s photo:
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I left the Cotswolds on a Great Western Railway train from Moreton-in-Marsh. First Class was just a £6 upgrade so I splurged. It is always a beautiful trip once the train gets to the countryside.
Dorchester made me feel right at home! I stepped off the train and walked straight into a huge brewery! Not in production any longer, alas! I was a tad hungry so I stopped at a chicken chain, Nandos and was pleasantly surprised. The welcome was warm, the hostess explained the system and I was off to the races. Half chicken medium spicy, cucumber and tomato salad and roasted corn, with a big bottle of Hot Spice Sauce on the side. This was actually a rather good meal, chicken was perfectly done, cooked but still moist and the sides were rather good.
Dinner was at Santos, a Portugese menu that had some interesting dishes that I had enjoyed in Lisbon. And oddly enough they were not quite as good in England. I ordered the Arroz y Mariscos and it was more tomato than seafood or rice. Not bad, just not really good.
I stayed in a slightly tatty old B&B a couple hundred meters from the railway station. very comfortable. Except for the duvets. What is up with the duvets that are the same length as the bed? This is the third one, my toes are freezing!
Next morning I got the train again, this time to Wool where I had a mini-full English breakfast at Jurassic Cafe (Jurassic is the name given the coastline here). The tiny baked beans were amusing but the bacon and the sausage were both good. I think I am seeing Lincolnshire Sausage for the most part, I am curious to try other types.
Uber let me down, again, so I walked the 1.5 miles to the Tank Museum at Bovington. WOW! This museum is incredible! My favorite was not actually a tank, it was a Bren (Universal) Carrier because I could actually see me owning one.
The tanks were incredible as well.
A memorial to a family that lost their sons in WWI. One won the Victoria’s Cross, posthumously. The photo mentiond that two of his other brothers died in the war as well. 3 of 5. Gone.
As I walked back I realized the cool old stone bridge was the one from the book Tess of the D’Urbervilles, the one over the River Frome.
Back to Dorchester on the train, I really like the frequency of the service.
I ended up at another Kings Arms for Sunday Roast, where I could not choose between the three types of roast so I had the trio, roast beef, pork and chicken. And a Budcombe Ale.
The roast beef was the pre-sliced variant that I have never grown to like, but the chicken and the pork were both rather good. It has gotten difficult for a traveler to find an actual Sunday Roast where the beef is carved on site, rather than pre-sliced. Sad, that.
Next day I was off to Weymouth, nice pebbly sand beach, rather cold day so few people out.
Had a very nice sausage (Lincolnshire again?) sandwich with egg. Very nice place called the Cor! Great couple run it.
I was hungry on the way home so I stopped at the Little Ship pub, where the reviews were outstanding for a seafood menu that looked great! Unfortunately, the pub had been sold 4 months before and the menu was now all pub grub. I should have left but I got bangers and mash instead, which was actually fairly decent. Just not the seafood I have been looking for.
Walked through Borough Gardens on my way to the grocery store. Beautiful park.
On my way out of town I stopped at Vivo for “Lounge Eggs” which were poached eggs with spinach and mushrooms, rather good!
Later that day I took a doubledecker bus to Portland so I could tour the famous lighthouse, Portland Bill. Beautiful coastal views, 155 steps up to the top. Not that I was counting…
Docent was a good sort, many facts about the lighthouse and the coast. And he had an interesting theory that the Citadel on Portland is an ancient building site of some sort that dates back 15,000 years, pre-Roman by a large margin. Considering Stonehenge is around 5,000 years old that is an odd take.
Now I have to see what he was basing this assertion on…
Now I am off to Bridport on another doubledecker bus to sample 3 cafes/ pubs i have read about!
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This is quite the adventure you are on!!
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Was that Richard Wain by any chance?
If so, I know quite a bit of his story. He was one of the officers of the company of the Manchester Regiment with which my grandad served
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This was Cecil Sewell. He was awarded the VC for saving the crew of another tank that had fallen into a ditch which trapped its crew.
Sewell got out of his tank to help them escape but was hit by enemy fire while doing so.
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My Spring Onion would have a blast tagging along with Uncle @ZivBnd!
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It has been a very relaxing trip with a good variety of food! One week left.
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Bridport was a great time and the area has some outstanding food choices! My first stop in Bridport was at a local butcher shop, R J Balson, in large part because it has been the family business there in town since 1515. 511 years, 26 generations of Bridport butchers! I met and talked to Richard, the current owner and got 6 sausages for my 3 day stay. Traditional, Toulouse, and Blood sausage with Apple. Fried them up every morning with a couple eggs, a few slices of cold blue stilton and a small tin of baked beans or corn niblets. Simply outstanding!!!
My second stop in Bridport was at the Refresh coffee and sandwich place where I ordered my first Coronation Chicken sandwich. What a handful, slightly sweet, a touch of curry, and hearty home made bread. A really good sandwich!
More of Bridport.
River Brit, next to the Palmers Brewery.
The next day I made probably my longest hike of this stay, going down to West Bay where the local farmer had freshly manured his land giving the entire town a decided ‘farmish’ scent. So I headed up past the headland and straight into… A golf course.
I did finally find my goal, a Michelin Knife/Fork/Plate awarded cafe, Seaside Boarding House, overlooking the English Channel and the beginning (?) of Chervil Beach, a huge 20 mile long pebble beach interspersed with these huge cliffs that are constantly falling down.
There were a passel of engineers looking up and shaking their heads. Good work if you can get it. They are there if you look closely.
Anyway I sat down at the Seaside Boarding House and ordered a Pisco Sour, fried squid and a seafood stew. All of them were thoroughly ok, not good, not bad, just ok. But the view was outstanding!
I was rather disappointed so I walked back to West Bay and ordered scallops, chips and a beet salad at Rubicon, a husband and wife hole in the wall next to the marina. And it was outstanding. One of the best meals I have had this trip. Despite the Eau de Merde.
The next morning I was up at the crack of nine and on the trail by ten. And stumbled into one of the nicest vistas I have seen in some time, including the Cotswolds.
That is the Symondsbury Estate down there and to the left a smidgeon, the Ilchester Arms, a new pub with a growing reputation for using fresh, locally sourced goods. And that is both the good part and the bad part of my meal. I got the Haddock Gratin over local cabbage, the Pope IPA and the White Beans with Feta Cheese. The haddock was superb, the cabbage was fresh off the farm and was only a fair accompaniment for the haddock. The white beans and feta were good not great. But the haddock made the meal.
I am not staying long enough in each town, I really wanted to go to Rubicon and Ilchester again, but I had already booked my AirBNB in Bournemouth and London. Poor planning on my part.
Which brings me to another aspect of both this trip and so many others I have taken.
I am not very good at ordering food.
Some people look at a menu and even if they have not eaten there, they have a good idea of what will be best there.
I do not share that skill. And I wish I could develop it.
Advice is welcome.
My final photos are from the top of a double decker bus traveling from Bridport to Dorchester, where I got the South West Rail train to Bournemouth.
The first is a renovation of a historic manor farmhouse in progress. It caught my eye as a beautiful home that will be with us for centuries to come. Poor photo taken on the fly but it gives an idea.
And a self serve, fresh milk vending machine by the side of the road. Bring your own jugs, flash your Google Wallet, and pump as much locally produced milk as you want. That is kind of cool!
And a very bad photo of two guys thatching the roof of a farmhouse.
I hope they are well paid and that this skill is preserved!!!
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All the food you’ve had so far looks pretty good to me. there’s always gonna be hits and misses(hopefully more hits). I do way too much restaurant research when I travel because I don’t want to miss out on the local flavors and dishes which I might not be able to get back home. Maybe a bit more research before you go to a particular city/country to see what peaks your tastebuds and interests might result in better meals? Lots of excellent advice on this forum.
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You raise a good point. I think you are probably right about the research aspect of it. When I travel, I tend to avoid much research and just wing it. And then I complain that I did not do enough research to realize what I should pick from the menu.
I think that I recognize, now, the flaw that my lack of planning brings to my choices. I guess now I have to do more research to avoid these poor dish selections. Part of my problem is that I really like seafood, and I order it when I should be looking at the lamb or the beef.
And as you note, my selections were not bad, they were just not as good as I thought the place could deliver.
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That’s kinda what I mean by doing more research, if a certain region is famous for seafood then by all means I’ll be ordering it, but if they’re known for great beef/lamb or pork then that’ll be my first choice.
Winging it can net you some surprisingly good food, and accommodations, but it can also lead to disappointment. It also depends on how much time you have in each place, fewer days means fewer choices so you gotta make them count. the longer your stay, the more room you have to play with the odds, if that makes any sense. 
No amount of research can guarantee you 100% great meals, but in my opinion, it really helps.
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I need to invest more time and research. That makes a lot of sense.
I have recently started to lengthen my stays from 2-3 days to 3-4 days. That helps a little, but I have to admit that I have been thinking more and more about how much fun it was to stay in Malaga for more than 2 weeks for my Spanish language classes. I got to know restaurant owners and waitresses, and I found places I wanted to return to several times a week.
I think I was close to realizing what you are talking about though it might have taken me way too long to realize what it meant to my travel scheduling.
I do an RTW most years, and I have usually spent 5 days in Tokyo, a month in Thailand split over 5 or 6 destinations, then a couple weeks in either Greece or Italy, again split over 3 or 4 destinations, then a week or two in Portugal, Spain or the UK, then returned home.
That is a great option and I am glad I get to do it, but I think I need to down-select to half as many destinations, do more research and stay longer at the ones I like.
The downside is that I will not be going to as many new places.
I am lucky to have that problem. Very lucky.
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What a great installment of your trip!
If we establish a good rapport with the server and they give off good vibes, I often ask them what their favorite things on the menu are. Of course, if they state the priciest items on the menu, then I might take that advice with a grain of salt, but we’ve rarely been victims of the upsell. I’ve left the days of obsessive food research behind me and just go with the flow.
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Good points. I used to be in sales so I recognize an upsell and respect it. Even if it is not what I am looking for at the time.
That does not mean that I will always agree to it, though.
I like to acknowledge it when it is done well, and say just that, “Nice upsell!”
Some are nonplussed by it but many just nod and take the praise.
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THAT is VERY cool!
I have to say the lamb looked AH-MAY-ZING at the butcher shop in Bridport. Lamb & Mint Kebabs, lamb steaks…yum!
Those cliffs were amazing - and I was able to zoom in on my work monitor to see the engineers with their hands on their hips looking straight up at the eroding cliff face.
Your meals look wonderful and the trip and countryside is outstanding - thanks so much for sharing with us!
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Thank you for reading my posts! I love to travel and Hungry Onion gives me a place to share what I see, which is very nice.
The engineers just made me laugh because at the distance I was at, they looked like a cartoon scene of what engineers should look like. Hi-viz vests, hard hats, serious postures, hands pointing at the problem. 
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The TV drama, Broadchurch, was largely filmed in West Bay. The cliffs overlooking the beach, in your photo, featuring significantly.
My only food experience of the village was a fish and chips lunch at Catch of the Bay - one of the stalls at the marina. Fantastic haddock. Not so fantastic chips.
Then we went looking at Bridport’s antique shops. Didnt buy anything. And were back in Weymouth in time for a shower and dinner.
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I like to wing it, too
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Perhaps choose better places to eat and stay at? Why would you eat at places like Nandos, boarding houses, cafes and pubs etc. when I assume food is of interest to you as you are posting on a food and drink site.? Please don’t tell me you used Tripadvisor as one of your guides?
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