Aaron's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘bus tour’

This year we did another kind of road trip to various places in the country, and we all had a wonderful time!

We started off by going to Wookey Hole but the weather was wet and miserable unfortunately.  The caves were great though, and the boys enjoyed being underground, especially as they each had a glow stick! Aaron was a bit frightened as we first went in though but he soon forgot about it. After the tour of the caves had ended, we looked around the rest of the venue and watched a SciFi Circus, wondered through the land of the dinosaurs, had a look at some old machinery from the mill that Wookey Hole used to be and wondered through an old Penny Arcade.  There were also paper making sessions, which looked interesting, and a 4D cinema which we didn’t go in. The boys went in an indoor soft play area and loved it in there. On the way out, we stopped in the Wookey Hole Ice Cream parlour and had some ice cream, which was delicious, before heading off back to the car and driving to the Premier Inn near Kidderminster, where we were going to stay the next couple of nights.

For tea that night, we went into the Beefeater which was right next door to the hotel, but it wasn’t very nice at all and extremely expensive!  We left there feeling quite annoyed as the food wasn’t great and there wasn’t much of it and it cost so much. Oh well!

The next day we went back there again for breakfast, which we had already booked, which was OK, though you couldn’t eat as much bacon and egg etc as you liked.  Instead, you had to order it so it wasn’t much of an all you can eat. The boys were fine though as they were scoffing cereal, crumpets, buns etc and also had some beans and egg on toast! They ate loads!

We then went to visit the West Midland Safari Park, which was absolutely brilliant! We all thought the place was amazing! The drive around the safari was nothing we had done before, so we didn’t know what to expect, but it was amazing being so close to the animals and being able to open the car window to some and stroke them. It was crazy how close the lions were as well, as they were just ambling along near the car and lazing around.  There were some amazing animals such as the Lions and Tigers, but also white Tigers and white Lions that we had never seen before.  There was also a baby Rhino which was cute and some dodgy camels that wouldn’t get out of the road! It took roughly 3 hours to get around the safari and then park up to go into the park itself.  As we had 2 days in the park, on our first day, we ignored all the rides and had a look at the rest of the animals and enclosures, such as a walk through a bat cave (where the bats were flying around our heads!), the Hippo feed, a Sea Lion show and we also walked through the new Land of the Dinosaurs with really good models that moved and made various dinosaur noises. We had a lovely first day there and didn’t leave until late as the place didn’t close until 9pm! We had had food there so we went back to our hotel for the night, after a detour to the shop to get some chocolate, as we had to pack our bags up again as this would be our last night in the Premier Inn.

The next morning, we went across and had our breakfast again and then loaded everything into the car. We then set off for our second day at the safari park and enjoyed the safari as much, if not more, than we did on the 1st day! After we had parked up, we spent the rest of the day going on all the rides. We did also go through the bat cave again, as that was great fun! All the rides were excellent and we all went on a varied amount with the boys loving them all! We again had tea there and didn’t leave until about 8:30pm as we were enjoying the place so much, we didn’t really want to leave! But we did, and drove all the way to a Travel Lodge at Barry in Wales.

It took longer than expected to get there as the M4 was closed, so we had NO idea where we were going! By this time it was gone 10pm and the boys were all asleep, and we ended up being diverted through Newport before eventually getting to Cardiff and on to Barry.  It was a crazy drive as it was pitch black, raining and a bit foggy!

The following day, we went in the Toby Carvery for breakfast (which was right next door) and stuffed ourselves with lovely bacon and eggs! The boys ate loads again (mostly beans!) but were quite tired so were being a bit naughty, especially Coby who just wouldn’t sit still. Once finished, we drove to Barry Island and spent the day walking along the beach front and along the cliffs, and in the amusements and fairground. It was a really hot day so we first went into a cafe and had a nice milkshake!  The boys (and me and Kelly) loved the arcades and we won a few toys on the 2p machines, and we also all went on a few rides in the fair.  Towards tea time, the shops were closing up so we decided to walk back to the car (we were all tired out really) and drove down the road from where we were parked to Asda and got some bits and pieces for tea. We then went back to the same car park and had a picnic in the car, before going for a quick walk along the estuary. We then drove to another beach side car park just along from Barry and parked up overlooking the sea.  It was lovely there and reminded Kelly and I of Carlyon Bay when we first started going out, before they tore it all up for development! After this, we then went back to the hotel and packed again, before getting some good nights sleep.

The next day was our final day of our road trip holiday this year and the weather was awful!  We first went to Asda at Barry for a nice big cooked breakfast and got a few things whilst we were there, before heading off to Cardiff Bay and the Mermaid Quay car park. It was a shame that the weather was so bad as our first impression of Cardiff Bay was wet and dreary! We went in to the Millennium Centre and had a quick look around, mainly to get out of the rain, before spotting the bus stop to catch the sight seeing tour of Cardiff bus. We had already booked this previous to our holiday so when it arrived, we jumped on.  But due to the weather, we were unable to sit on the open top deck and had to sit in the stuffy lower level, which wasn’t very nice at all. As the bus drove around, we couldn’t really see anything as the windows were steamed up so the boys started to get a bit naughty. Eventually, we got off at Cardiff Castle, which we had already got tickets for, and went in.  The weather was still bad to begin with, but gradually cleared up and became hot and sunnier as we made our way around the location. The boys seemed to find most of it fascinating, however, when we were in the bomb tunnels and the noises of the bombs from the war were playing (in the dark as well!), they all got a bit scared! Coby was in his push chair and Kelly had to hold his hand as we made our way along them. I think they were all glad when we got outside again! Towards the end of the visit, a birds of prey show started and Ben and Coby ended up lying on the wet grass (along with many other people) and had a big owl fly over the top of them. They thought it was brill! After we had had a good look around and bought something in the shop, we left the castle and finally went on our open top bus tour of Cardiff. We did it twice as we wanted to do the full circle and then carry on again until we could get off at Cardiff Bay. We then had tea in a Wetherspoons there (where Coby spilt his drink over everything!) and then had some dessert in a nearby American Diner that sold proper Sundaes, before making our way back to the car and driving home.

We all had a great holiday and visited some really excellent places. I think the firm favourite was the drive through the safari at the West Midlands Safari Park, as we hadn’t experienced anything like that before. The weather was mostly pretty good, apart from Wookey Hole and most of our day in Cardiff, and we had some good food! Roll on next year when we are going to Scotland for a week! 😉

This year for our holiday, we went on a bit of a road trip to several places. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great on each day but we all had a great time anyway!

The first place we visited was on Sunday 26th July when we traveled up to Stonehenge in horrible heavy rain. It wasn’t bad getting there but we were hoping for a break in the weather when we did arrive. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen, and to make matters worse, they had a power cut when we arrived, so we were unable to use the toilets or anything. Luckily though, we had pre-booked online so had a print out of our tickets, so we were able to carry on and catch the bus from the visitor centre to the stones themselves. If we didn’t have the print out, we would have had to have waited for the electric to come back on as all their machines were out of action. When we got to the stones, the weather was hellish and Coby was playing up as we had to keep him in the buggy with the rain cover over him, otherwise he would have got drenched! About half way through our walk around them, Aaron decided he needed a wee as well, but there was literally no enclosed area for him to do it and to get to the toilets, we would have had to have caught he bus back to the visitor centre and hoped the electric had been fixed. So in the end, he had to go by a small wooden bench! At this point, Coby was being kept quiet with snacks otherwise he would have been shouting and crying. Anyway, the boys did enjoy looking at the stones, and listening to the tour on the speaker phone we had been given each. The entire place was pretty special and you could see how mystical a place it would have been in the past. After we had finished the tour of the stones, we had a look in the shop and the exhibition at the visitor centre. The theatre type section in the exhibition was particular great and depicted how Stonehenge was built all those years ago and what it would look like at certain times of the year.  All three of the boys were mesmerised by this and stood for ages watching it! Once we had finished there, we were soaked through so went back to the car for some snacks and to carry on our trip to the Quality Inn Express that we were staying in for the night in Southampton.

The hotel was really nice and was next to a Hilton and opposite Hampshire Cricket Ground.  That night we went to a local Pizza Hut for tea, which was really nice, and we all scoffed Pizza and ice cream. Coby ate loads and the boys did too, although they felt sick with the ice cream they had as they put loads of sweets over the top of it which made it rather too sickly for them!

The next morning, we got up and went down to our breakfast buffet in the hotel and scoffed loads of food, before making our way to Paultons Theme Park, which is the home of Peppa Pig World. We got there just after opening and there was already a queue to get in the car park. Once we had parked and gone in we headed straight for Peppa Pig World.  It was really good and the boys loved it! There were lots of rides for Ben, Aaron and Coby but as it was quite busy, there were queues to get on them all. We stayed in that section of the park for most of the day (seeing as we were coming back the next day) but towards the end, we did wander over towards the bigger rides, but didn’t make it too far as the park closed before we had chance to have a proper look. The boys had had a great day there and were looking forward to the next day. We had McDonalds for tea that night, before settling back into our hotel room

The next day, we had our big buffet breakfast again and packed the car up before driving over to Paultons Theme Park again. We were a bit later this time, but only by about 30 minutes, but we ended up in a different car park as the other was already full.  These were massive car parks as well! This time, we headed in the opposite direction and went to the big rides first. We didn’t go on any of them as we are wimps (apart from Kelly) but the boys did go on some of the smaller rides and Kelly and I did as well.  We actually found a whole section of the park that we didn’t realise was there, so that was a pleasant surprise. We then headed back through the section of the park that held birds and some small animals, some nice gardens and a large grass area, to Peppa Pig World, so the boys could have a few more rides over there before the end of the day. As it was later in the day, it was much quieter so the boys went on several rides without too much of a wait. We then nipped in the onsite restaurant for our tea (as we were driving straight to Bath for the next leg of our holiday straight from Paultons) before popping back over, one last time, to Peppa Pig World. We stayed right until the rides closed and then slowly strolled back through the park and out to our car. We all had a really great time there and would definitely return again. There was so much to do for the boys and enough for Kelly and I to be kept entertained as well. It was definitely well worth it!

As mentioned above, we then drove to Bath and went to the Travel Lodge that we were going to stay in. We managed to get the last car parking space and unloaded. Unfortunately, this place was a bit rubbish! The travel cot that they provided collapsed slightly, which was a bit dangerous for Coby, and they couldn’t fix it or give us another one as that was the only one spare that they had. Even though the room was massive (the boys were playing football in it), it wasn’t really up to standards and the bathroom was really not nice with gaps around the bath and black mould in places. It was a shame as it was situated right next to a canal and a large pond area, which looked really nice. We even saw a Kingfisher there which was great!

Anyway, the next day we had our buffet breakfast there and made our way into Bath centre to visit the sites and go on an open top bus ride that we had already booked. We firstly went to the Roman Baths, which were absolutely amazing! The boys enjoyed it to a point as they had an audio tour each which kept them quiet, but towards the end they were getting a little bored. It also got incredibly busy at one point and Coby fell asleep, so we ended up carrying him around asleep as we weren’t allowed the buggy. We then spotted the open tour bus stop and went on that. It took us all around Bath to all the major sites such as The Circus and Royal Crescent, before we got off close to where we got on. We then had to dash back to the hotel as Aaron had had a toilet issue and had to change his trousers! So after that was sorted, we went back and quickly visited the Abbey.  We didn’t stay too long in there as Coby was being naughty and shouting and making too much noise, so we quickly left again. So we decided to go on the open tour bus again (our tickets allowed us to go on as many times during the day) and had another tour of Bath. At this point, we realised that our tickets allowed us to go on another tour which took us out of the centre of Bath and into the surrounding area, so we did this. It was also very good and the boys all loved having rides on the buses, especially as we were at the top! Once that dropped us back we made our way home and decided to have some food in the hotel. This was a bad mistake as it was horrible really. The boys had pizza, beans and chips, which was fine, but Kelly and I had a horrible Chicken Burger that was cold, shriveled up and basically not nice. Our chips were cold as well! So we left there quick and popped to a nearby shop to get some choc and Ice Lollies as the boys wanted one and we weren’t going to have ice cream from the hotel! Once these were bought and scoffed, we packed up and went to bed for the night.

The next morning, we had our usually buffet breakfast before heading to Weston Super Mare for our last stop on our holiday. Typically, the main road to Weston was closed due to an accident, so we were detoured miles in a different direction, so we ended up not getting there till gone 11am, when we wanted to get there much earlier than that.  When we did arrive, we parked in the car park that we had already decided on, as it was meant to stay open 24 hours, only to find that it was only the bottom level that stayed open, with the other levels closing at 7pm. This was useless as it was so busy we couldn’t park on the first level, so I ended up going back during the late afternoon and paying more car parking fees and moving the car to the lower levels as it was quieter by then. Anyway, the weather was nice in Weston albeit quite windy.  We had a look around the shops and had Burger King for dinner, before going over to the Grand Pier. We were quite shocked that we had to pay to actually get on the pier, but were all amazed when we got to the pavilion and saw how huge it was! It was absolutely amazing inside, completely full with arcade games and rides. The boys were completely amazed and got very excited!  So we stayed in there for a while and the boys managed to win enough tickets from the machines to get a prize each. We had a good look around and then had a look around outside at the views.  When we first got there, the tide was literally nowhere to be seen, but it was starting to come back in by now, and the scenery was amazing from the end of the pier. We then tried to go on the beach but it was so windy that the sand was being blown up in our faces, and Coby was getting upset with it as it was going in his eyes, so we decided to have a walk up the other end of the town. We then had to find somewhere to eat and ended up in a Wetherspoons, which was packed out, but we found a table on the 3rd floor, so we sat there and had some food.  By the time we got out, we had a quick wander up the other end and tried to find an Ice Cream, but everywhere was shutting by 8pm, which was crazy for a Summer’s Day! Luckily, we found a shop that was just about to close and nipped in there and got some. We ate this quickly and then finally went on the beach, as it was a lovely evening with hardly any wind by now. All the boys had a good time playing in the sand and making sand castles, and we also had a little paddle in the sea, which was quite cold!! By this time, it was getting late and we had to get back to the car by 21:05, so we headed off to try and find some toilets, but we couldn’t find any. Eventually, we found some further down the beach, after walking all around the town again! We then got back to the car just in time and packed our stuff, before heading home. We had a lovely day in Weston Super Mare, and we would visit again, but perhaps stay over night next time. We didn’t get home till nearly midnight so all the boys were fast asleep by the time we arrived, so they all went straight to bed.

We had had a lovely few days on holiday! The weather wasn’t perfect but it was mostly dry, so we were happy enough with it. We visited some great places and the boys had some good fun. As usual though, it all seemed to go too quickly and we were home again before we knew it. Roll on our Butlins weekend in December! 😉