Category: Travel

I woke around 6am, got myself a cup of tea and sat outside enjoying the early morning quiet.

I could hear the chooks in their chook house waiting to be let out. Eventually Amy joined me and later we woke up Christy and got ready to set off to the Peak District and Chatsworth House. We planned to have breakfast on the way and go via Kenilworth Castle. Wow – it looks amazing! Will definitely have to come again another day.

We didn’t end up getting breakfast until 10am. We ate in the van before hitting the road again.

We drove through beautiful countryside and I was so excited when I saw Chatsworth come into view. Simply stunning!

First up we did a tour of the home. So much history and an amazing collection of artwork and artifacts.

By the time we finished here it was past 1pm and we were hungry. We bought a quick lunch and ate on the grass.

I bought a pastie but it wasn’t very nice so I had some strawberries and ice cream.

Amy’s ankle was very sore so we parked her in a suitable location and the 3 of us went off to explore the grounds. I’m so glad we made the trip here as it just gorgeous. And I love how the grounds are accessible to everyone. So many families were picnicing in the beautiful surroundings.

Christy had a play on the cascading waterway and made friends with one of the many dogs enjoying the day with their families.

We then went back to collect Amy and visited some of the shops. We decided to skip the tour of the gardens and go back to the motorhome. I wanted to get some more photos so I walked up the road and they picked me up.

We drove to the Farm Shop – which although it is on the estate took about 10mins to get to. And what a shop it was! They had an amazing collection of vegetarian dishes, not to mention fruit, veg, bread, cakes, cheese, etc.

From here we drove to tonights accommodation at Knotlow Farm. After phoning for directions we were a bit shocked to find they charged us an extra 10GBP for the kids. Luckily it’ a very nice location.

Christy promptly crashed a boys party by joining in their games (she was only girl). She then made friends with some campers across the field. One of them is a travel writer who gave us his book to read..
I loved seeing the cows walking in the paddock and also found some chickens. And it was lovely arriving before 5pm. We had some cheese and crackers and relaxed.

Later we had dinner – mushroom pies (we bought at the Farm shop) and salad.

We sat and read outside and tried the local specialty – Bakewell Tart.

More time blogging this morning. We got the van organised – filled and emptied tanks – and were on the way arod atund 8.30am. We stopped just before 9am for breakfast, which we ate in the van. We still can’t get over the range of foods, esp, healthy foods, available. I got a falafel and hummus wrap – yum!

Then it was back on the road…..until we hit TRAFFIC!!!!! The M40 was closed in one section so we had to get off and use another rode. Unfortunately this meant 3 lanes of traffic stopped and moving at snails pace for about an hour before we could even get off the M40. What a waste of time. We had debated taking the more scenic traffic but decided on the motorway to save time – BIG MISTAKE!!!

We had planned to go to Kennilworth Castle but decided we’d be too rushed trying to fit it in. Finally we arrived at Warwick Castle around 1pm (I think). It was quite the hike from the car park to the castle on a rather HOT day. And the place was packed!!! So many school kids and tour groups. I was rather stressed out when we arrived and we were all hungry.

We found the first place to eat but it was a carvery and I didn’t feel like hot food. I ended ordering a juice (something I never do) and cake. We went to go the toilet but the wait was so long I just could not be bothered. Christy had to though so I waitied outside for her. When I went after lunch (20 mins later) there was no line. Thankfully it was now around 2pm and all the school kids were starting to leave.

We walked through the State Rooms.

Then watched a show on birds of prey. The birds were amazing. So huge and flew down low over our heads.

We then went to the Princess Tower for a little show, Christy enjoyed it.

Next up was an very much appreciated ice-cream and some not so appreciated whinging by the children!

It was still very warm and we wondered down to the river side of the castle. Lots of people were sitting in the shade and being 10mins to 4pm we hoped maybe there trebuche (sp??) was going to be used at 4pm. It was nice and sitting and relaxing – watching the swans (and 4 signets) and ducks. And yes, at 4pm, the trebuche was launched. I never did realize quite how much man power went into loading it. Rather awesome and we were glad we got to see this.

We then went to the Watermill area. Very pretty here and I took lots of photos of both the river and the castle.

Kevin & Christy visited the gaol and we all walked through the Kingmaker exhibit.  It was almost time for Kevin and Amy to do the Dungeons but Amy wasn’t feeling and didn’t feel up to it.

So we left Kevin and I took the girls up the play area. Amy sat for a while and eventually felt well enough to go and join Christy – who played for the whole hour we were there. I sat and relaxed enjoying the late afternoon sun (now that it had cooled down considerably).

At 6pm we met Kevin, who said the Dungeon show was excellent and we could probably all have gone, and left the castle. So what had started out as a stressful visit actually ended rather well. Definitely a great place for kids.

After walking back to the motorhome we drive to tonights accomodation at Harbury Fields Farm. It was only about 10-15mins away and we got checked without any problem.

This is a working farm with an area for van. Very pretty. First up were showers for everyone – and I mean everyone – together in the family shower wet room :-). We all felt much better afterwards. I had put on some washing before my turn in the shower and worked on that while getting dinner organised. We then ate outside – pasta with a vegetable sauce bought at Jimmy’s Farm which was delicious.

I then finished the laundry and the girls and I went for a quick walk around the area. We saw some of the sheep off in the distance and found the chickens (which were right behind our van). It certainly was a lovely place – so quiet and restful.

Amy and I sat outside until quite late – 10pm. Amy then went to bed and I was not too much later.

We woke around 6am and got ready to depart around 7.15am. We stopped an hour later for fuel and breakfast.

Once we left the main motorway it was a lovely drive to Bath but took a lot longer than expected. I utilized the time to type up yesterdays diary.

We had planned to be in Bath at 9am but we didn’t arrive until 10.30am. Of course when we arrived at the Park and Ride it was only to discover we were too tall to fit under the barrier. And we have no idea why there is a height barrier when it’s outside parking. Luckily we spotted some street parking not far away so left the motorhome and walked back to the park and ride to catch the bus into Bath. It was a short 10 min trip and we were there.

Our priority today was the Roman Baths. It was a little on the busy side but manageable. We took the audio tour but found it a little boring so switched to the kids audio – which was better. It was amazing to think of Romans walking around and using the bath all those years ago.

After the tour Christy was set of drinking the water from the spring fountain. It was surprising okay, but rather warm!

We were all starving by now and headed to the Bath Canteen – the River Cottage Cafe. Unfortunately there wasn’t a lot on the menu we felt like eating so we decided to get devonshire teas for lunch! The was grown in England and just lovely. The scones were nice, but yesterdays were better. However, the jam helped compensate. We all left rather full and satisfied and happy to have been to Hugh’s cafe.

Christy is out best Goldie spotter and saw this one just after leaving the cafe.

We then went to the do the open top bus tour of Bath. It was such a beautiful day (unlike last time we were here in ’97). The town is lovely – full of beautiful old, Georgian buildings. We the Crescent, Putney Bridge (with it’s cute “little” shops).

We got off to visit the Jane Austen Center but we had to wait nearly 30mins till the next tour so decided not to wait.

Back on the bus we went back to the town center and bought some Cornish Pasties. We then made our way back to the park and ride bus and back to the van. On route we enjoyed our pasties. Boy were they good.

Lovely countryside once again. We had to laugh when we saw these signs warning of tanks crossing.

A quick hour later we arrived at the Stonehenge Touring Park. We checked in (without any problems) and were directed to our site. Such a cute little park. Christy went off to check out the wooden play area and we all enjoyed an ice cream while playing with our computer (great internet access here) for an hour or so.

Then it was time to head back out for the short drive to Stonehenge. Wow, it’s smaller than I remembered :-). The girls, especially Amy, were very excited to be here. We did the audio tour and took photos.

Then went back to the motorhome where we had some dinner. So fun having the van to have dinner in.

We then went back into Stonehenge for our All Access Tour which meant we could walk through and around the stones. This was just awesome and such a wonderful experience. Lots of photos as it was hard to pick my favourites.

Kevin spent a lot of time lying down taking photos.

I was also very happy with the photos I got as it was a magical night with blue skies and fluffy white clouds. We could not have asked for anything more. We all loved this and it was well worth the cost (which wasn’t really that much) and the effort to come back after the day in Bath.

We drove back to the caravan park – enjoying the view as we went.

Home and all settled for the night we played on computers again and enjoyed the strawberries and raspberries we’d bought at Jimmy’s Farm with some clotted cream – yummo! The berries were just divine.

I stayed up far too late trying desperately to get my blog posts up to date. Almost there. It will be good to back blogging as I go.

It was a pretty rough night for both Kevin and I myself as we adjusted to our new bed. Plus I had a panic attack when I woke up to almost pitch black in the middle of the night. I felt claustrophobic and like there was no air. Kevin opened up our vent more which helped but tonight we’ll have some more blinds open so it’s not as dark.
We played on the computer for a bit and I got some blogs uploaded before we headed off around 9.45 to catch the bus into Portsmouth.

Once in Portsmouth we walked the very short distance to the Historic Docklands and exchanged our voucher for tickets (after waiting in the wrong line). Poor Kevin had a REALLY sore back today and was in a lot of pain.  By now it was 10.30am and we were hungry again so went to the tea rooms for morning tea. We had Cream Tea which was just delicious.

Next was the highlight of today – the HMS Victory. Unfortunately there was no guided tour but it was well sign posted and thanks to Kevin reading all the Hornblower book he knew all about how everything worked. There was also a number of guides around if you had questions. It was busy but not too crowded.

We saw the plague showing the location where Lord Nelson was shot during the battle of Traffalga.

After viewing the ship we went into the museum and watched a presentation about the battle which was rather well done and very interesting. Next up we saw the only remaining sail from the battle, which came from the VIctory. Christy was impressed to see the holes in the sail where shot went through.

We then went to the Mary Rose Museum. Unfortunately the Mary Rose is currently unavailable to view but the museum was interesting. And a bit more hands on for the kids. We also talked to one of the men who was part of the search for the Mary Rose which was raised in 1982.

It was now 2pm and time for some more food. We decided on a pub lunch and there was one right across the road, which even had a kids play area.

Kevin and I shared a very yummy nachos.

We then decided to go back into the dockyard and do the cruise (that came with our ticket). So glad we did this because we saw many of the naval ships – including the new one and an aircraft friggat.

There was also a US Nuclear Submarine – which is apparently very rarely seen in the harbour. It was a great cruise and gave a really good idea about the importance of Portsmouth.

We ended the cruise in the Dockland Quay – a lovely area full of shops and resturants. We even found a Christy shop selling towels/linen.

 

We then went in search of a supermarket. We should have gotten a taxi as we ended up walked a LONG way and Amy had a very sore ankle and ended up crying. We went back via the Dockyard – which was just as well as Christy had left her new compass on the boat and was very upset – so we were able to get her a new one.
FInally we got to a Tesco and got enough to keep us going for a few days. We also bought some pillows – as the ones in the motorhome are pretty  pathetic.

We then got a taxi back to the caravan park – much to everyones relief. My own feet were very sore today (wearing my joggers instead of my crocs). I unpacked the groceries. and put dinner (pies and quiches) in the oven. We played on the computer while it cooked. My quiche was delcious and Kevin was very impressed with his supermarket pie.

We moved inside when it got cooler and I spent more time on the computer before going to bed around 9.30pm.