We were a little later than usual to breakfast because Mr C wanted to pack his bags beforehand so that we could check out of the hotel as soon as we had finished eating. At breakfast I discovered the delights of the pancake machine that I had intended to try earlier during our stay, but with our hectic schedule I forgot about it. The first two were so tasty that I went for seconds and found a young French boy was processing pancakes. He turned to me and said ‘are you waiting?’ to which I replied ‘yes’. He then said ‘two more’ indicating that he was going to cook another two after the first two had popped out of the machine. I smiled and said OK and when he had finished collecting his pancakes he smiled at me as he took his tasty delights back to his table.
We loaded our car and drove to Stonehenge which we had been looking forward to since before we set off on our holiday adventure. It being the school holidays there were queues for entry but I remembered that there is a fast track for English Heritage members and located that entry kiosk. We were admitted within minutes.
The weather was glorious and sunny giving me the perfect excuse to wear my new wide brimmed, straw sunhat. I was a little bit apprehensive that a gust of wind might carry it away but my hat behaved itself. I was glad I chose to wear this hat, it kept my head cool and my hair intact whereas my other hats overheat my head and I end up with ‘Hat Hair’.
On this occasion our walk to the stones, was not optimal and we were left disappointed. As we approached the stones we saw two coaches and the remains of the old visitor centre much more prominently than the iconic stones.
After we had passed the eyesore and were approaching the stones, we were tempted to an ice cream. There was a bit of a queue which left us plenty of time to decide one or two scoops… We had already chosen the flavour, Bramley apple crumble and custard. By the time we got to the kiosk we had settled on two scoops each. The scoops we saw were very small, but when our cones arrived the scoops were twice the size of the scoops other people had been receiving. The ice cream was delicious and melting around the edges causing sticky fingers. Yum Yum!
It is always a joy to see the stones within the wide landscape, although it was much busier than on our previous visit. Our time was limited so we opted to catch the bus back to the visitor centre rather than walk back (which we usually do).
Rather than eat out on our return home we decided to pick up a chicken and some veg so that we could have a roast dinner. There are always several supermarkets en-route but on this occasion, there were none to be seen. As time was running out, we resorted to googling for the nearest supermarket which turned out to be in an obscure location. We arrived with fifteen minutes to spare before it closed, but thankfully were able to pick up everything we needed for dinner along with bread and milk.
Dinner was delicious and much more relaxing than dining out after a long drive home. I missed being able to call my mum on a Sunday which has been the norm for many years…
