West Country Weekend

As Dr T has been complaining I'm going to do a hatrick of posts a la Ruthie a while back.

Cheddar came first ... so Post No.1

We headed off to the West Country, complete with Wurzels CD for a long weekend in Somerset. We wanted an escape a while back, Dr T wanted Cider so it ended up with Somerset, and Cheddar YH to be precise. Mr Tesco (with help from our weekly shop) paid for 2 nights and £2 of the third for our 2 bed room at the YH located in the residential bit of Cheddar, easy walk from everything (a good thing, as parking can be fun and far away!).

We spent saturday with some retail therapy for me in Street (alas the Rohan outlet was rather pants, especially if you are a girl!). Before Lunch in Stourhead and a wander around its huge gardens, so we run out of time for the house. But at least I got the B'day pressie for a friend sorted in their shop. Stourhead appears in lots of TV programms due to the number of follies built in a number of styles. It recently featured on How we built Britain'. Back for dinner in the YH, courtesy of a huge Sainsbury's in Frome, and their reduced section treats...

Sunday was Cheddar Gorge & Caves. Yep its tourist in this bit, yep you have to pay, and it is a bit pricey. But the Caves were good, Gough's Cave particuarly. The cathedral and calcite waterfalls are good, but Waitomo's (North Island, NZ) Cathedral cave is better (and bigger!). We climed up Jabob's Ladder and up the look out tower but didn't wander on. Lunch was eaten on the Ladder (its a long set of steps, rather than a ladder as such). Then Caz Chauffeur service kicked in with Cider tasting and purchase. Dr T ended up with 4 containers of Cider (either 2 or 2.5 Litres), meanwhile Caz gained 1 litre of Perry. But best of all for me .. we came across PYO raspberries ... and 1kg of Raspberries later Caz was a happy bunny (and of course had done a bit of Quality control on the way). See not being able to to eat Strawberries you don't get much often from PYO ... no cherries around Portsmouth way. I love raspberries, always have but usually have to wait for an in season visit to the parents to get some as they are so expensive in the supermarkets. So 1kg of Raspberries later, and Caz was in search of her perfect accompanioment to them, Condensed milk, we always had it with raspberries from the garden... None of it in the Tesco express, so we ended up with cream of cornish ice cream, a good second.

Monday, a day of leave so it started well, breakfast of raspberries & ice cream (we had to eat up the ice cream ....) an interesting but good start. We then bid farwell to the lovely little YH (its hard to find, its along the little driveway to the north of Cheddar First School), for the journey home with stop offs...

First was Nunney Castle, for Dr T to have a Castle moment and take photos. Its a good one in the ruined castle stakes. Then onto Frome, in search of beer (alas we couln't find the brewery) and back to Sainsbury's for use of loo....

Next major stop was Stonehenge, the henge came first followed by the A303 .... lots of amercians (the white trainers and basebal caps on old blokes gives it away) and a smattering of others. It was drizzle all day so didn't really see the henge as it best. But its something I keep going near but never seeing. I've seen it now ... and satisfied.

An aside .. what is it with Americans and bagging sights? We found it in DC, they were amazed we spent a whole day just doing the 'Air & Space' smithonian, Americans do it in half a day ... they can't go in every bit. It seemed they thought you should do DC in a long weekend. We spent a week and didn't get to see all we wanted at decent pace! There were a group of American school kids @ Cheddar caves, in the time we took to get off the bus (the went in just as we stopped) and get maybe a 1/3 of the way round  ... they were heading back out. It seems to us that they need to say we saw, say 10 sights in a day, even if they didn't have the time to take in the place they were visiting. Taking your time to appreciate a museum or sight isn't 'The American Way'. 

So onwards to Salisbury, a quick visit to the Cathedral precints and a few photos, followed by lunch. The boy hadn't got his promised pizza over the weekend, so we ended up with Pizza Hut (Dr T without a weekly pizza is worse than Caz without her weekly spice! He gets all huffy).Then a wander around the city.

A pit stop at Southampton General Hospital to see Tom's grandma and we finally arrived home refreshed from a weekend away.