In February we had the opportunity to head out of Taunton and go on a road trip to parts of the UK that we had never visited before. Our road trip started with a visit to Cheltenham . This was a hour and a half drive from Taunton and the beginning of a very long journey.
We had booked a nights stay in Cheltenham in a hotel called Hotel on the Park. The Hotel itself was in a the central area of Cheltenham being only a short walk from its famous racecourse and the town centre. On arrival we decided to explore the town before heading to our hotel room. The town had many facilities accommodating most people’s taste especially if you like shopping. There is also lots of places to eat with lots of bistros and restaurants to choose from including a chapel which had been converted into a restaurant called Revolution which is where we decided to head to for our evening meal. After exploring the town for a while we headed to the hotel which oozed with style as soon as we walked into the entrance, it had a very relaxed feeling and we received a warm welcome on arrival. As the hotel was upmarket we tried to act a little more upper class then normal, this failed when Kerry tripped up the stairs to our room.
When we entered the room the majority of the space was taken up by the unmissable super king size bed, but the bathroom was the main show stopper in the room. The bathroom had a blue glow to it as soon as you entered and you were greeted by the mother of all baths the infinity bath, almost deep enough to swim in. Not knowing what an infinity bath was or how they work we spent quite a while looking for the taps to fill it, only to discover that this one filled up from the ceiling. The entire suite was in a black and white theme and the bathroom was all done in marble.
After going out for dinner we returned to our posh hotel with a bag from Lidl containing chocolate and a bottle of Shloer as we did not want to pay £4 for a bottle of water or coke. Judging by these prices we decided to avoid the hotels bar. Obviously we aren’t there normal type of guest.
Waking up fresh and alert from our wonderful sleep in the heavenly super king bed we embarked on the longest leg of the journey to Lincoln or as its known on the signpost ‘Historic Lincoln’. No more luxury for us we were going to stay in the spare room of a friends shared uni accommodation. It’s a shame as I was getting used to the way the other half live.
Lincoln is a city full of character with its old cathedral, modern university and water front. There’s plenty to explore with unique antique shops and the more modern university and town centre. If you feel energetic then you can venture up the aptly named steep hill where you will be greeted by the magnificent cathedral and castle currently under going restoration after a large fire and years of wear and tear.
After a very very early start and a slightly restless night we started the third leg of our journey heading back down south. Our next stop being a cheap and cheerful travel lodge in Kidderminster. Not quite the luxury we had in Cheltenham but a step up from the night before. Kidderminster is a strange place although we did not explore it, everything seemed to be broken up into zones which often felt that they overlapped each other.
After our nights stay in the travel lodge we headed off for the last part of our road trip back to Taunton via West Midlands Safari Park. The weather was freezing, even compared to being further up north in Linclon. The safari drive took about 2 hours and gave us the pleasure of viewing animals ranging from the rarely seen white lions to the more common deer. The safari allows you to get up close to the animals, you can stroke the friendly deer and also feed some of the animals. The most amazing encounter was with the white lions allowing us to get so close you could see the blueness of their eyes as they stripped meat of the bones that they had been given. After touring round the drive through safari we headed to the adventure zone on foot. As you enter you are greeted by the sight of penguins splashing around in the water energetically after being fed and the sound of sea lions. After wondering round all the other indoor enclosure such as the bats and fish we headed to the sea lion show. It was at this stage it began to snow and we had to sit on our hands to keep warm, even the sea lion did not appear to be enjoying this cold snap.
Once the show ended it was time to head back to the real world and to Taunton. Overall our road trip was very enjoyable and allowed us to experience a range of lifestyles and see sights we had never seen before. We only wish we stayed in places for more then one night so that we could enjoy our surroundings a bit more. Would we do it again…yes.