A Weekend Away
I had hoped that Anna would have blogged about her Cheesemaking course by now so that I could have linked to it from this post. She hasn’t yet so I’ll just have to post this without the link and add that later. I’d bought her a day long cheese-making course at Hugh Fearnley Whittingstalls River Cottage HQ in Devon so we made a weekend of it. Originally Morgan was going to come with us so we had decided to drive down on Friday evening after school, spend the night at my parents house in Gloucestershire. We then had a Premier Inn room booked for Saturday night not far from River Cottage HQ. The cheese-making course was on the Sunday though and didn’t finish until 5pm so that would mean a long drive home so that we could get home ready for Morgan to go to school.
Ever Evolving Plans
A plan was hatched and we thought it would be nice for Morgan to stay with friends for the weekend so that we could drive home on Monday instead. What we didn’t realise when planning this was that the Friday was an inset day so Morgan wasn’t at school then either. The next plan was that Morgan would go out with friends on the Friday as well meaning that Anna and I had a long weekend from Friday morning to Monday evening on our own. I can’t remember the last time we had that much time on our own. It must have been almost 12 years ago.
The friends that Morgan was spending the weekend with then decided to go to St Davids on Thursday evening so that they could have a few days in Pembrokeshire. So, we packed Morgan off to school on Thursday morning with enough clothes and supplies to keep him going for the weekend and to go to school on Monday morning! We did see him briefly after work on Thursday but only so that he could collect some things from Anna’s office and then we had the place to ourselves.
Heading South to Christmas
We drove to my parents house on Friday taking a leisurely drive through the snow-topped hills of Mid Wales. I was driving a lovely new VW Touran as well. A hire car that I had for a week whilst mine was being sorted out. It was lovely to drive and very spacious too. The auto-lights, auto-windscreen wipers and such things allow you to just get on with driving and the Apple Car Play works really well too. I want one!!
VW Touran
We didn’t stop off en route but instead headed into Bristol for some retail therapy. We’re rubbish at this shopping malarky and just wander around really. We did buy a few presents here and there and Bristol was feeling christmassy already. There were decorations up in the shopping mall and all the shops were selling Christmas things. I had hoped to pop into the Apple Store to take a look at the new MacBook Pros with TouchBar but it was raining far too much for the walk there. We weren’t going to buy anything so it just wasn’t worth getting wet for.
Cabot Circus
After wasting a bit of time in Cabot Circus we headed off to my parents house for a chilled evening with them. The following morning after a relaxed breakfast we headed off south once more towards Honiton and our Premier Inn for the night. We stopped off in a chilly Cheddar for a wander around and yet more retail therapy. This included a look around the always present Christmas shop.
Anna at Cheddar
We did well here this time, visiting the cheese factory, cheese tasting and buying some presents. I think we bought something in every shop we entered – except surprisingly the sweet shop! We didn’t go into any of the caves though.
We did stop off for lunch and tea for two though in a nice little café and then even managed to buy me a pair of shorts.
Tea for Two
We then continued on our way through what was now a grey dreary day and then a very wet one as we made our way to Honiton. By the time we got there it was raining quite heavily. We had planned to wander into Honiton and have a look around but it was just too wet so we just ended up buying a few things in the Aldi supermarket opposite. We looked for a cinema instead but there wasn’t one in Honiton so spent the evening in the hotel instead. Dinner in the restaurant wasn’t the best. It was OK but not up to the usual standards that we get from restaurants associated with a Premier Inn. The room was of course clean and comfortable. Honiton wasn’t the most of exciting places for us!
South Devon
The following morning after a huge breakfast we drove south once more, this time to River Cottage HQ.
River Cottage HQ
I dropped Anna off here and she boarded a tractor to her cheese-making course – she WILL blog about this soon as it sounded really good and she had a lovely day there. I then continued south to the coast where I went for what was supposed to be a coast path run from Axmouth to Lyme Regis and back, but ended up being more of a hobble, limp and hop. It was a nice day to be out and about in the fresh air for me though.
After my trip along the coast path, I limped around Seaton for a bit, grabbed a coffee and then headed back to River Cottage HQ where I waited for Anna. It was dark by now but it was less than a two hour drive back to my parents house for the evening.
Homeward Bound
After another night, followed by breakfast at my parents house we said our goodbyes and started heading home. Morgan was at school now but we had been texting him here and there and he seemed to have been having a good weekend. He’d been trampolining, to the Blue Lagoon, Mountain biking and of course playing Pokémon Go with his friends. We stopped off at the Three Shires Garden Centre for lunch and to buy some tropical fish. We bought some Christmas decorations too as the Garden Centre was be-decked in Christmas glitz as well. It seemed to us as though Christmas had arrived already this weekend.
Snowy Roads
The drive across the mountains had a Christmas feel too as it was snowing quite a bit. Driving through it was fine though and we were soon home and waiting for Morgan to get home from school. It wasn’t quite so Christmassy on this side of the Cambrian Mountains though. A good weekend away and hopefully a nice late birthday treat for Anna.
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Sounds like a fun weekend for all. Amazing to see the snow.
I know you said you had snow on the way home, but I didn’t realise it was that much.
It was lovely to see you both and glad you both enjoyed the week end, hopefully by now your knee has recovered. X