Summer Hols

Five weeks in the UK this year. What a treat! Shame about the weather but we still had lots of fun and it was so nice being able to see a lot more of everybody.

The first week we stayed in a bungalow with Mum and Dad at Ridley Hall near Blackpool. The bungalow was more spacious than our flat in Italy and the site was well stocked with things to do with the kids. We made very good use of the fun pool with Luca loving the two slides and capsizing buckets of water. One afternoon, Amy and Tanya spent hours in the indoor play area and once the rain stopped we were able to spend quite a bit of time in the adventure playground.

I had a very enjoyable (albeit brief!) break from the kids, celebrating Helen's 50th at Lake Vyrnwy Hotel. Four of us stayed the night and we were joined by two other friends for dinner at the hotel. After checking in and marvelling at the view of the lake from our rooms, Helen, Sue, Jeanette and I headed straight to the ajoining spa where we had mud treatments, massages and a lot of lounging around in the steam room and jacuzzi. Back in the room Helen opened one of the bottles of champagne which we drank while dressing for dinner. Then it was drinks on the terrace with Gaynor and Jo before our scrumptious 5 course meal.
The following morning, Helen and I were up excruciatingly early due to my mobile still being on Italian time but at least it gave us the chance to make full use of our glorious bath with lakeside view! After a leisurely breakfast, we jumped in the car and whizzed to the other end of the lake for a relaxing walk up to some waterfalls. Fortunately, the weather cleared up and we were able to have a laid back sit in the sun before heading back to the hotel, via a strange little cafe set up in someone's living room where we had a cuppa whilst enjoying the view of the pine trees obscuring the lake.

Back at Mum and Dad's, I just had time to throw some things in a suitcase before Laurence arrived to take me and the kids back to his for the rest of the week, thereby giving Nanna and Granddad a bit of a breather...Whilst at Laurence's it rained every day but we still got out and about and obviously the cousins had bags of fun together. Tram rides, steam train ride, chocolate cafe, museum workshops, parks, canal walk and the odd half hour of computer games!  

The rest of our time we were back on the Wirral, revisiting old favourites like Tam O'shanter's, Royden Park, Chester Zoo, Chester, Liverpool etc and discovering new places like a revamped Irby park, Martin Mere and the fabulous Hilbre Island walk which we've been wanting to do for years but previously been thwarted by bad weather or unsuitable tide times. Highlights would definitely be a very entertaining trip on a duckbus, Amy finally getting her ride in a pink pedal boat, feeding the squirrels in Chester Park, giant jellyfish on the way to Hilbre and about half an hour on the idyllic sandy beach of Hilbre where it was sunny enough to burn Helen's legs!

The only picture I have of the duckbus is the following reflection in a building with mirrored glass windows. Luca took one from the bus of the Chinese Arch. For more duckbus pictures see post from couple of summers ago.