From the moment we walked into the restaurant, to when we left, we were made to feel very special – nothing was too much trouble for any of the staff (not that we made any demands, but there was a particularly testing table that arrived as we were about to leave.) I loved the décor, it was just to my taste and we were sat at the window!
We did wonder who St. Petroc was, so we went to good old Google and found this: “St. Petroc, also known as Petrock, was a British prince and Christian saint. He was renowned for his goodness to both men and animals and he founded monasteries at Padstow and Bodmin. Although he had been brought up as a prince and trained to rule over people, he had a call to lead a holy life.”
We chose to have the Set Lunch at a cost of £26 each, with additional sides of Savoy Cabbage with bacon and chives and Tenderstem Broccoli with salsa verde.
We both decided on the same courses, Tomato Soup with Basil for starters, 4oz Steak Frites with thin cut chips and rocket salad for Mains and Sticky Toffee Pudding with Cornish clotted cream for dessert. I forgot to take a picture of the starter, but it was just soup!
The whole meal was absolutely delicious, hubby particularly loved the Tenderstem Broccoli and we ate everything, nothing was left to waste. The soup was very tasty, the steak just melted in your mouth, the chips were crispy with a light potato filling and the dessert was heavenly, not too rich, not too heavy and topped off perfectly with the clotted cream.
And just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, a special Happy Birthday plate was presented to the table!
The whole meal, including drinks, cost us £90 . I always say that I don’t mind paying that extra if the meal is worth it and boy was this meal worth it!
I am off work at the moment as I am recovering from bowel cancer and my husband booked two weeks off as our son was getting married and he wanted some time off around that. I received an email from Parkdean Resorts saying we could book a four day holiday for £89. I was a bit sceptical but it was true, so we booked to go from Monday to Thursday at St. Minver Holiday Park, Wadebridge, Cornwall, PL27 6RR.
Day One
The journey from Southampton to Wadebridge is roughly four hours, so we booked to stop off at The Jamaica Inn for lunch. This was a bit of a bucket list item for both of us, as every time we drove to Cornwall we threatened to go there, but never actually got there, but because it was my birthday, we decided to go for it.
Picture from Jamaica Inn website
We stopped off at The Jamaican Inn, luckily we had booked as it was very busy.
Our onward journey took us another 45 minutes where we found St. Minver Holiday Park quite easily and after booking in at Reception we found our caravan.
We booked a four berth caravan and when we entered we were pleasantly surprised by it. Sure, it wasn’t the biggest caravan we’d stayed in but it was only for the two of us and we wouldn’t be spending that much time in there, we were more concerned with the facilities the park had to offer and the location of it.
Living roomKitchen area
On looking at the map of the site and the entertainment programme it looked like there was a lot going on. We saw that there was an entertainment hub which housed the pub, showbar, restaurant, arcade and soft play area and the list of activities for the children was quite extensive, including an indoor heated swimming pool, plus bingo, karaoke and even a tribute band for the adults. I was quite impressed that you could order food from your table via their App and even have food delivered to your accommodation.
After unpacking, we decided to visit a beach called Polzeath Beach which is popular with surfers and we could see why when we arrived, the waves were awesome! We took a walk around the town centre, purchased an ice cream and took a wander down on the beach. There were lots of surfing classes and we spent a while watching the surfers ride the waves and some quite spectacular wipe-outs.
As it had been a long day, we drove back to the caravan and as we were both still full from the lunch at Jamaica Inn, we had a cup of tea and went to sleep….
Day Two
Today we had decided to go and visit Padstow which is one of my favourite places in Cornwall, my very favourite being St. Ives. But, instead of driving to Padstow we were going to park at Rock, which was only a couple of miles away and then catch the ferry across the bay to Padstow. This was a good decision as the car park in Padstow is way up on a hill and whilst this is fine in the morning walking down, it’s very tiring after a long day and having to walk up this steep hill, plus after chemotherapy and bowel surgery, I’m still not up to full strength so I’m not sure I would have even made it!
We arrived and parked up and went for a walk along the sea front to take a little look at the place where the celebrities live, people like Gordon Ramsay and Dawn French. We spotted Paul Ainsworth’s restaurant, The Mariners on the sea front and it did look fabulous, somewhere we’d love to go for a special occasion.
We walked back as we could see the ferry was approaching Rock Beach. The ferry only took card payments and it cost £3.00 – Adult Single, £1.50 – Child Single and £3.00 – Bike.
The ferry dropped us off at the harbour and after checking what time the last ferry back to Rock was, we went off to explore.
Padstow is a fishing port and is situated on the west bank of the River Camel. There is a lot of shops to visit, we particularly like the glass art that you can get from Cornwall, plenty of tea rooms, restaurants and of course, pasties. After a cup of coffee and a piece of cake, we took a stroll round and sat on a bench on the harbour just people watching and enjoying the view.
After a delicious meal at Rick Stein’s, we had another wander and stumbled across a craft fayre and never one to walk past one of this, we went in. There were lots of stalls to have a look around and I bought a ceramic heart necklace which was very pretty.
We then caught the ferry back to Rock, thankful that we didn’t have to go up that steep hill back to the carpark and drove back to the caravan site.
We were going to go to the Entertainment Hub but we were very tired and so we just chilled in front of the television watching The Great British Bake Off, munched on a few pork pies that we had brought with us and then departed to the bedroom and I haven’t slept that well for a very long time…
Day Three
On our journey down to St. Minver Caravan Park, we saw a sign for Pencarrow House, it wasn’t a National Trust house but privately owned, so we made a mental note to visit it if we had time over the next couple of days. Well, day three afforded us this chance and so we headed over to it early morning to book a house tour.
Pencarrow HouseLanhydrock House
It’s a standing joke between us that wherever we go somebody always knows hubby and today was no exception. As we walked into the shop a voice said, “Hello Phil, what are you doing here?” The lady who worked behind the counter used to work in one of the buildings he runs as the Catering Manager!
A walk around the gardens and a guided tour of the house and we were on our way to Lanhydrock house, but not before have a bite to eat at a pub we passed along the way.
We had downloaded a free National Trust pass so we used this to gain entry to Lanhydrock House, which was just as well as it was quite expensive at £20 each.
After a look around the House, we would have loved to had spent more time there but we had a meal booked at Bodmin Jail before we went on our ghost walk, we had to move on.
The rain was coming down which added to the eerie feeling about the jail. We arrived fully expecting a meal but was told that even though we booked it online for a time of 16:45, they weren’t open at that time for meals but did open at 17:00 for a set menu. On looking at this menu it was £50 per head, so we decided against it and found a lovely little pub down the road and had a bowl of tomato soup each!
Back to the jail for 18:30 and we booked in for our ghost walk.
The walk around the jail was very interesting, we were told about the different ghosts that haunted the jail, facts about some of the inmates and we got to look inside the jails, which was a bit creepy.
The person who led the tour was very knowledgeable and we were surprised to find out it was his first tour he had ever done, so well done to that man!
It was at Bodmin Jail where the episode of Most Haunted was filmed and Derek Ocorah (a medium) was set up by Ciaran O’Keefe (sceptic) to expose him as a fraud….
After the tour we headed back to the caravan site where we went to the entertainment centre and feasted on a £12.49 pizza and a couple of drinks.
We took a picture of the different menus:
After feeling full after eating the pizza we did a quick tour of the amusement arcade where we won a couple of small teddies and then we headed back to the caravan for our final night before we packed to go home.
Amusement Arcade
Day Four
Phil got up early to go to a bakery we had seen at Rock the day before to buy some pasties and scones for when we got home. Phil is very partial to a cream tea and we hadn’t had time to fit one in this trip, so we bought one to take home with us.
We didn’t stop on the journey home, mainly because we sailed past the services we were going to stop at, so it was nice to have a ready-made tea when we did get back.
My view
We thoroughly enjoyed our time at St. Minver Holiday Park, so much so that we’ve booked five days next year this time staying in a lodge so that our families can come and stay if they want to.
Our lodge for next year
We found the park to be central for where we wanted to visit and there was plenty to do, from playing bingo, karaoke, swimming to walking through the woods.
The first thing we noticed was that it was decorated with Halloween decorations, they had a backdrop of a haunted house where you could have a picture taken.
We sat down at our reserved table (I would recommend booking ahead as it was very busy) and I ordered the Chef’s Steak & Jamaica Inn Pie which was served with creamy mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables and gravy: Price £16.95
Hubby ordered the Jamaican Inn Burger with 6oz beef burger topped with Monterey Jack cheese, bacon, tomato, gherkin and salad in a toasted brioche bun served with skin-on fries: Price £15.95
Both meals tasted delicious, just what we needed, a hearty meal after three hours of sitting in a car in traffic! As I said before, it was busy, but the meals didn’t take very long to reach our table and we were far too full to order dessert.
We then headed towards the museum which focused on the author, Daphne Du Maurier and of course, pirates, smuggling and ghosts.
The cost to enter the museum was £3.95 for adults and £2.95 for children and OAPs.
Daphne Du Maurier
Well known for her novel, The Jamaica Inn which was a tale about Mary, an orphan, who lives with her Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss Merlyn, who was the Landlord of the Jamaica Inn and her uncle’s involvement in smuggling along the Cornish coast. One of her other well known novels is Rebecca which was a very successful film. There is a room created at Jamaica Inn which is full of memorabilia including her writing desk on top of which is a packed of the Du Maurier cigarettes named after her father.
Smuggling Museum
The Museum purports to house one of the finest collections of smuggling artefacts in the country. Custom taxes were first introduced in the 13th century but there was little enforcement of this until the 18th century when taxes were raised to fund foreign wars. Goods could be purchased much cheaper abroad and so smuggling became rife. Tea was six times more expensive in England than Europe. Other goods such as silks, tobacco and branding were also smuggled into Cornwall.
Paranormal Activity
The presence of paranormal activity here is one of the reasons we wanted to visit, we do like a good ghost story and if there’s any chance of an investigation we’re there. But unfortunately we didn’t have time to attend an investigation this trip, but it’s something we would like to do in the future! You can book a stay in one of their haunted rooms which includes a two course dinner and is £85 per person.
Most Haunted did an investigation here and said it was one of the spookiest they have ever recorded. Below is the programme they recorded….
After a look around the gift shop, I wanted to buy a Jamaican Inn t-shirt but unfortunately they had run out of stock, we then went to the farm shop and then we left the Jamaica Inn.
During a four day break in Cornwall with my husband, son, daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren, we decided that a visit to the Eden Project was a must. We looked at the weather forecast and the day that was scheduled for rain, was the day we booked to go.
Prices:
The tickets are priced seasonally, so the prices range:
Adults: Standard – £32.50 Peak – £37.50 Child (aged 5-16): Standard – £11 Peak – £12 Child (aged 0-4): Free all year round.
Parking was included in the admission price.
Length of time spent here:
We arrived at 10:30 AM and left at about 2:30 PM.
My Review
We have been here before but that was approximately 15 years ago, so a lot has changed since then!
The Eden Project was originally a china clay pit and was used by the BBC as the planet surface of Magrathea in the TV series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
This lovely driftwood sculpture of a horse was at the entrance – stunning!
It was drizzling with rain when we arrived, so we headed straight for the biomes, entering the Rainforest Biome first.
The Rainforest biome was amazing, it was like stepping into a different world. The amount of different flowers, plants and trees was mind boggling, from wild bananas to oil palm to all kinds of spices.
It didn’t feel as hot as I thought it was going to be, but this was in April, I suspect that in August it is a different story!
Aziza Gate , 2004Malaysian Hut
There was a treetop walk which included a rope wobbly bridge, where at the top, there was commanding views of the whole biome from the viewing platform.
View from viewing platformViewing platformWobbly bridge
After spending a couple of hours in this biome, it was time for lunch. We ate in the main dining area between the Rainforest and Mediterranean biomes, it was a little pricey so maybe bring your own packed lunch is the way to go, but we all had a snack and a drink….
…then it was onto the Mediterranean biome.
Stepping into the Mediterranean biome, I was struck by how much lighter and more colourful it was than the Rainforest biome. In here we found grape vines, olive trees, cotton and citrus fruit. The array of flowers was spectacular:
There were some intriguing statues in this biome which were called The Rites of Dionysus. These depict Dionysus, Greek god of the vines and his followers who dance and writhe through the vines beating drums and sounding trumpets.
After thoroughly exploring this biome, we made our way back out into the gardens, where it was raining pretty steadily now and headed towards the Invisible Worlds exhibition.
This was an exhibition which explored our sense and how life is shaped by and also shapes, invisible systems.
Invisible Worlds exhibition (Picture taken from Eden Project website).
One sculpture which immediately drew our attention was the Blue (Infinity Blue) ceramic sculpture which weighs in at 20 tonnes and is almost nine metres high. It pays homage to one of the worlds smallest but most important organisms: cyanobacteria. No, I didn’t know what that was either, it says on their website:
The sculpture is a monument to these vital microscopic beings, who, along with the descendants found in the photosynthesising cells of all green plants, continue to provide the oxygen in every break we take.
The Eden Project
One of its vapour rings!
It was time to head back to the caravan and even though the rain hadn’t let up all day it didn’t matter to us, we were in the biomes most of the time. We all had a great time, the grandkids enjoyed walking around and exploring the different areas, in fact, I think we all learned something today!
We try and do something each year to celebrate the holiday season. For a few years we went to the London Palladium to watch the pantomime and then walk around London to see the Christmas lights, another year we went to Longleat Festival of Lights, but due to Covid, obviously last year we didn’t do anything. So this year, we decided to go to Bournemouth, which is about a 45 minute drive from us and we took our daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren to the Christmas Tree Wonderland.
We arrived at Bournemouth at about 6:15 PM, after inexplicably getting lost, even though we’ve driven to Bournemouth numerous times! The first stop was to get some fish and chips and where better to go than Harry Ramsden’s. We had a lovely meal there, the batter really is very light and tasty!
So then it was time to wander through the Christmas Tree Wonderland…
There were an array of different lighted up Christmas trees, with a few other displays as well including a reindeer, polar bear and, of course, the main man himself, Father Christmas.
We walked around the park, it was lovely to see Harry’s face as he saw each Christmas tree, he’s nearly three, so just beginning to understand what happens this time of year. He loved the bright lights and excitedly ran from one display to the next.
At the end of the park, we came across an ice rink and we stopped to watch the would-be Torvill and Deans, skating around a fairly huge ice rink. There was the usual people hanging onto the sides, gingerly making their way around the rink, and I have to say, that would be me, skating is definitely not my thing!
View of the ice rink
You need to pre-book the ice rink, there are sessions of an hour each, from 10:30 AM until 20:30 PM throughout the day and prices are:
ADULT -£12.50 CHILD – £10.50 SENIOR CITIZEN – £11.50 and FAMILY – £41.00
A quick look around the stands in the city centre, which were mainly food outlets and we headed back into the park to walk along the back path where there were even more displays to see.
Gingerbread men, one of Harry’s favourite biscuits!
One last stop at the Carousel, it cost £3 per person, but it seemed to go round forever. Harry chose his horse and held on tight!
Gee up Neddy or Coleen!
We were very impressed with Bournemouth’s light display, it must have cost the council a lot of money to stage this and for it all to be free as well is wonderful.
One week, from Monday to Friday on Channel 5 television, there was a television programme called, Susan Calman’s Grand Week By The Sea, where she visited five seaside towns in England: Great Yarmouth, Brighton, St. Ives, Southend and Brighton, whilst watching this we realised that the only one we hadn’t visited was Southend, so we decided to put that right and one weekend we got in the car and headed North towards Southend.
We left Southampton for our two hour and 15 minutes journey, which was broken up by two tunnels, one of which was the Dartford Tunnel, which has an easy pay online system, so there’s no need to fumble around for your debit card or cash!
We parked up and it was a ten minute walk to the seafront, where we immediately went to a viewing point to take in the view.
View of the amusement park, you wouldn’t catch me on this ride!
Southend looks like a typical English seaside town, with a huge pleasure park, hotels and bed and breakfasts, plenty of fish and chip shops, a couple of crazy golf courses and of course the longest pleasure pier in the world!
So we decided that a walk along the pier was the first thing we should do, all 1.33 miles of it. We purchased a ticket for £5.10 each, which was for walking one way and catching the train back, yes, a train!
This was the view looking down the pier, at first it didn’t seem that long, but the end of the pier seemed to take forever to get to.
It took us about 30 minutes at a leisurely walk, to walk the 1.33 miles, and once we reached the end of the pier, we felt that we deserved an ice cream and my hubby, who considers himself a bit of a connoisseur, thoroughly enjoyed his rum and raisin one!
Right at the end of the pier is the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, with a sun deck for stunning views of Southend from over a mile away. (See header photograph). There is also a RNLI gift shop and you can get up close to the lifeboats.
Image taken from the Southend Pier Railway website
From there we took the train back to the mainland, which took longer than we thought it would, but it was nice not to have to walk back again!
A walk along the seafront and we came across a crazy golf course and we decided to play a round. Hubby normally wins when we play, but today was a different story, I didn’t just beat him, I thrashed him by 14 strokes!
By this time we were quite peckish and felt it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t have fish and chips! We went to Britannia fish and chip shop on the seafront and it was delicious!
Time was getting on and our car parking ticket was nearing expiration, so we made our way back to the car park, walking through the town centre.
The journey home was different in that we didn’t go back through the Dartford Tunnel, but over the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which I have to say is quite stunning. It is known for heavy traffic congestion, but we sailed through it.
Queen Elizabeth II Bridge
All in all, it was a lovely day out, not too expensive, it was great to walk along the promenade, people watch and have a go in the amusement arcade – your typical British Staycation!
The tickets have to be pre-booked with the day and arrival time. You can arrive up to 50 minutes after your allotted time.
Length of time spent here: Approximately seven hours.
My Review
We visited on Father’s Day and they were having a hot rod show, (good planning by the Events Team!!). We took a wander around the cars, our son-in-law who is somewhat of an expert in cars, (there isn’t much he doesn’t know about them), enjoyed it a lot.
A couple of the cars at the car show and even Chitty Chitty Bang Bang showed up!
Apart from the actual cars, I loved the extra details on some of the cars.
My grandson loved this car with the eyes in the bonnet.
After a walk around the cars, (there was a lot of them), we stopped for a picnic lunch and then headed towards Little Beaulieu.
Little Beaulieu
This picture sums up how my grandson, Harry, enjoyed Beaulie.
This play area was really well thought out, there were separate areas for the younger children, complete with a wooden bus to climb on and a sandpit. Then you had the magical wooden palace with lots of slides and secret passages and for the adults there is a well stocked on-site café,
After we had drank a cup of coffee and Harry had run around the play area, we headed off to the museum. We had to wait outside until our time to go in, we wore masks and followed the one-way system, there was lots of arrows and directions which were easy to follow. There were lots of exhibits from racing cars, to motorbikes, to buses and even children’s toys.
Racing cars on the track
Thunderbirds etc.,
Old fashioned lamps
Just added this picture as my husband has a Silver Jubilee bus in the loft.
After a trip around on the monorail, which circled the whole of Beaulieu, we then went for a walk around the grounds. As well as holding the car show today, there was also Sculpture at Beaulieu featuring international and national sculptors.
Mad Hatters Party
We went to visit the Top Gear Exhibition where a lot of the cars which featured on the Top Gear programme were exhibited. It didn’t take very long to walk through this exhibition, but it was good to see these famous or infamous vehicles.
We finished off the day, where else but the gift shop!
The tickets we purchased allowed us to have an Annual Pass, this only includes entry to the Motor Museum, if you would like one to cover all the attractions, you need to purchase an Annual Pass Upgrade ticket.
A lovely day out, we were blessed with the weather, it had been raining the day before.
I went with my husband Phil, daughter Amy and grandson Harry. After a long time of not having gone out except for walks, we felt it was time to go and visit an attraction nearby to us and so we decided on Marwell Zoo.
Phil and I had taken Harry here before, when he was a lot smaller, so now he was walking and talking and taking an interest in everything around him, I was looking forward to seeing how he reacted to the animals.
I was surprised by how much the car park was already filling up, so we joined the queue to get in, abiding by the two metre distance and as everyone had already obtained their tickets online, the queue was quite quick.
We obtained a map of the park and after a quick toilet stop, not the cafe as it was only open for takeaways, we made our way to the penguines.
Even though we told Harry they were penguins, he insisted they were ducks, so as he wasn’t too wrong, we let it go.
There was a one-way system round the park, which people seemed to follow on the whole and when there was an inside exhibit, there were always keepers to make sure that there was a certain number of people inside at any one time.
Amy and Harry
We headed to the giraffes, where Harry got very excited at seeing them and even said, “Giraffe,” the first time he has said that. We went inside the giraffe shed, where we could get up close and personal and Harry was transfixed by them. So much so, that we bought him a toy giraffe at the gift shop and he kept hold of it all the time.
We followed the one way system around the zoo and saw some rhinos, zebras, a cheetah, leopard and a tiger. When Harry saw the tiger he shouted out, “Roar,” which was so cute.
We stopped for a picnic lunch and then decided to go to the Tropical House to see the frogs, birds, tortoises, mice and goliath beetles and the sloth, which all were excited to see. There was a long queue for the Tropical House, which when you have a 19 month old boy it is difficult to keep him amused, but after bribes of chocolate buttons and juice, he was very well behaved and we were soon in there.
We did see the sloth, but he was hidden in the branches of a tree, so I have used the image from the Marwell Zoo website, as you can’t see him in our photographs!
Harry loved the fish swimming in the pools and he pointed at the birds, shouting “Birds,” as he did so.
We walked around the edge of the zoo, passing a snow leopard, emus and some hippos and we ended up at the gift shop where we just had to buy Harry a giraffe.
It was a lovely day, people kept their social distance, there were members of staff manning the toilets, the cafes were open for takeaways, all in all, it was very well organised.
As we left Marwell, Harry was asleep, tired out after doing a lot of walking and no doubt dreaming all about the animals and especially the giraffes!
We were lucky enough to receive this as a Virgin Experience Day from our son and his girlfriend as a Christmas present, which included a cream tea – the prices are:
Adults – £20.00
Concessions – £17.50
Children 12 to 17 – £12.00
Children under 12 – FREE
Family Ticket – £52.00
These tickets include an annual season pass, so you can have unlimited returns for a year.
There is free parking on site.
Length of time spent here:
We were here for approximately six hours.
My Review
This is somewhere my husband and I have wanted to visit for a very long time, but it is a good two and a half hours driving for us from the South of England, so when we received this voucher as a Christmas present, we knew that this trip was definitely on the cards.
Alan Turing’s desk
Turing’s Assistant’s desk
I thought that I would come away from Bletchley Park with my ears ringing about Alan Turing and his contribution to the war effort. Yes, he was mentioned and we saw his desk together with his assistant’s desk (I feel that not enough focus is placed on the assistants and secretaries of great people – I feel a blog coming!)
Mavis Batey (nee Lever)
But I was pleasantly surprised to see other people being recognised and their stories revealed: how Mavis Batey (nee Lever) who was just 19 when she worked on the Italian Naval Enigma machine, she broke into their framework and deciphered a message which said, “Today’s the day minus three”. She and her colleagues worked for three days and nights and discovered that the Italians were intending to assault a Royal Navy convoy transporting supplies from Cairo, Egypt to Greece. The messages they deciphered provided a detailed plan of the Italian assault. There were short stories from people who worked at Bletchley Park describing the entertainment, what the food was like and the fact that there were many romances between staff members. In fact, Mavis met Keith Batey, a fellow codebreaker at Bletchley Park and they married in 1942.
We took a tour of the huts, which I found really interesting, the offices were all laid out as they would have been in the war. Phil, my husband, being a chef, loves looking round old fashioned kitchens and me, having worked in offices all my life, I love looking around offices when I get the chance, I especially like the old fashioned typewriters. I do admire anyone who can type fast on these, no spell checker, no delete button, but you do get the bell when you reach the end of a line!
We saw the Bombe, which was the electro-mechanical device that deciphered the German Enigma machine. The initial design of this was produced at Bletchley Park by Alan Turing: Gordon Welchman made the device more efficient by bringing down the deciphering time from two days to 15 minutes.
The Bombe
We had booked ourselves onto a guided tour, which was very interesting, the guide gave us lots of information about Bletchley telling us about the shift system, (three shifts per day), that there was only about 35 people working here at the start of the war and by the end there was about 9000 people. The fact that the work was so secret that the codebreakers didn’t know what the people in the next room were working on. It was an hour tour and I’d thoroughly recommend it.
After the guided tour was the much anticipated cream tea. You do need to pre-book this, it was fully booked on our day. The cost is £18 on top of the entry fee and for an extra £6.00 you can have a glass of Prosecco. The menu was:
Savoury
Blue cheese & broccoli quiche
Gammon ham & cheese finger sandwiches
Smoked salmon, crème fraiche & cucumber open mini roll
Free range egg, mayo & cress sandwiches
Desserts
Selection of Eclairs
Selection of macaroons
Strawberry sponge
Fruit and plain scones with Cornish clotted cream and strawberry preserves
Anna’s homemade shortbread
Your choice of:
Variety of loose-leaf teas or fresh ground coffee
We thoroughly enjoyed the cream tea and it was a lovely way to end our visit.
The lake at Bletchley Park – picture again taken by my husband (he’s getting quite good at these lake scenes!)
Our walk back to the main entrance was via the lake, where in the winter it froze over and the workers used to ice skate and play ice hockey and it was the venue for the clandestine meetings between co-workers.
My prize for the most unusual exhibit goes to the pigeon carrier, which would parachute the pigeons to soldiers, for the pigeons to forward on messages to the troops.
All in all, a great day out, with lots of displays and interactive exhibitions to find out if you could cut it as a spy and don’t forget, if you don’t manage to see everything in one day, you can use your annual season ticket to come back another time, free of charge!
Beautiful picture of the lake at Moors Valley – I can’t take the credit for it as my husband took it!
Prices:
There is no price for entry but you do pay for parking:
Parking –
Up to 1 hour: £4.30
1 to 2 hours: £8.00
2 to 4 hours: £11.00
Over 4 hours: £12.00
Length of time spent here:
Just over four hours. (We had to pay the £12 for parking).
My Review
I went with my husband, Phil, (who has now gotten over the Tottenham game) and my daughter, Amy, and our grandson Harry, who was enjoying his first proper day out with us.
First stop was the cafe, (you’ll come to realise that this is how we start our days out, cafe and then the toilets). We bought three coffees, lattes, and three custard slices, this cost us £17.50 which I thought was a bit steep, but when you saw the size of those custard slices and how lovely they tasted, it didn’t seem so bad.
We planned out our day, while Harry, who has just discovered he has a voice, made squawking noises, much to the amusement of an elderly couple who were sat on the next table. It was almost as though he was saying to us, “Hurry up, I want to go and explore outdoors.” So we followed Harry’s advice and tried to find the start of the red route, which was the longest one at 5 miles (well, I had to walk off that custard slice!).
This is the map we had picked up from reception, but try as we might, we just couldn’t find where the red route started, ended or anything in the middle. We rather hopefully followed a trail, but knew deep down it wasn’t the right one. We decided to cut our losses and followed some signs which led us back to the main area.
We decided that as it was still a bit early and the custard slice was still laying a bit heavy on our stomachs that we would go for a train ride. This was an extra cost, but Harry went free. The costs were:
We decided on the Adult return tickets and boarded the train. You start from Lakeside station and travel to Kingsmere station. It was one where you sat on a bench and a miniature sized steam engine pulled the carriages. We went to Kingsmere Station which didn’t seem to take that long and disembarked to cross the bridge where you can take a train back to Lakeside station.
There was a train souvenir shop, a model train set and a tea shop. We had a quick look round and then got back on the train. The journey back was longer and we went through a couple of tunnels, which everyone seemed excited about as we all cheered as we went through!
After the excitement of the train, it was time for lunch. Again, we brought our own lunch and ate it in the picnic field by the train station. There was a Steam Train Fair going on, with lots of locomotives on display and steam engines, with a few classic cars.
But Harry and Phil decided they quite like the remote controlled tanks with the Action Man figures inside. I’m not sure who was having the most fun, the kids running away from the tanks or the men with the remote controls chasing the kids!
So we sat and watched the tanks while we ate our lunch.
After lunch we decided that the red route was not going to defeat us! So we walked again, with renewed enthusiasm and full stomachs and found the start straight away. It wasn’t really that hard to find as it is marked by a huge totem pole!
This time we were a lot more successful with reading the map, which considering both my husband and daughter are ex-scout leaders, is how it should be, (we’ll overlook the earlier walk!)
We followed the 5 mile route, which did prove a little tricky sometimes, pushchairs and roots poking up from the ground don’t go together well, but it was a lovely walk which ended up at the lake.
The sun had started to shine, it had been a little drizzly earlier on and we came upon a steam engine parade, when Harry nearly jumped out of his skin when one of the engine drivers tooted a whistle at him.
We rounded off the day with an ice cream, which I can say was one of the best ice creams I’ve had in a long time, but we did feel guilty as Harry isn’t old enough to have them yet, so he had to sit in his pushchair and watch us!
Harry denying us every lick of ice cream!
After that it was time to go home. This was a great day out, even though we only did the walks, there is a whole lot of other activities at Moors Valley, including Go Ape. We walked under the course of high wires and Amy and Phil decided that we are going to come back, when Amy’s husband comes back from sea, (he’s a sailor) and they are going to complete the Go Ape course. My reply was, “Good luck with that, I’ll look after Harry.” So, expect a review about that, but not my experience, theirs.
A journey through the meaning of life and anything else that grabs my attention!
Making My Home A Haven is important to me. Sharing homemaking skills. Recipes and food. Bible Studies. This is a treasure chest of goodies. So take a seat. Have a glass of tea and enjoy. You will learn all about who I am and Our Neck Of The Woods.
After the guided tour was the much anticipated cream tea. You do need to pre-book this, it was fully booked on our day. The cost is £18 on top of the entry fee and for an extra £6.00 you can have a glass of Prosecco. The menu was:
My prize for the most unusual exhibit goes to the pigeon carrier, which would parachute the pigeons to soldiers, for the pigeons to forward on messages to the troops.
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