We were debating whether to do our usual and have breakfast in the room - well it's so lovely why leave it? - but went down to the conservatory dining room instead; which was completely deserted and therefore very quiet!!! Had a lovely cooked breakfast served by a very friendly mature chap, with whom we discussed the merits of the Island as he's coming here with his caravan club in two weeks!! The hotel owner apparently has family in Cowes, which explains the multitude of Cavendish Morton paintings I spotted on the walls...
And so sadly we had to leave The Eastbury - but I would go there again at the drop of a hat as it was completely and utterly lovely.
FFarewell to Cowslip, our lovely room
Stourhead was on the agenda today - we'd been there about eight years ago with Romilly when we had a break in Dorset before; it was so beautiful then (we'd gone in April) that we decided to go again. As we got there just after opening time it was lovely and quiet, or so we thought - we parked up and just as we were preparing to get out of the car a coach full of German people arrived...needless to say it took a while to get through Reception, buy tickets and get past the large group! We spent a lovely couple of hours wandering around again; it was particularly nice to make it up to the Temple of Apollo, which is up a set of steep steps and a challenge at the best of times. C made it though, determinedly so, and it was worth it as ever. My friend Edwina had been at a wedding there on the Saturday before, and there were still rose petals on the steps...aah.
We had very nice tea/coffee and cake in the tea shop, then a browse around the shop. Back to the car and it was time to 'take five' - C was pooped and we had to think about where we were going next. Decided on Shaftesbury for a quick visit - this is the place where we'd been almost 22 years before, and saw the hotel we'd stayed at; our first trip away. We had time for a cuppa, and found a place called King Alfred's Kitchen - sounds nice, and the building was lovely and old, but once inside it quickly became clear that the waiting staff weren't interested in the customers, or the cleanliness, or making it welcoming. Three tables were left with dirty crockery on them, the one we sat at hadn't been wiped, and there were bizarrely two tables in the room without chairs around them. When the waitress arrived she looked like she should have been working in Gap and behaved like it too!!! That said, the tea and hot chocolate were nice; but we didn't stay long.
And so back to Lymington - the drive was a little subdued as the sun was nowhere to be seen and it was drizzling a bit; no topless driving today!! Sitting in the car park at the ferry terminal was quite amusing as the majority of people getting off were clearly Bestival goers on their way home - muddy wellies, rucksacks, and they all looked tired and hungry. But happy too...so good.
Home again. Sidney went ballistic with excitement, Charlie more subduedly so. Rom and Dan had managed to housesit beautifully. It was nice to get back, nice to be back in my own bed, nice to have home made tea again. We had a lovely weekend away - completely forgot about the cancer, illness, doctors, hospitals and all that guff - and just enjoyed it all. Bliss.
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