On the way down to breakfast, I noticed an empty bottle of alcohol that I had seen a couple of days ago on top of a table, and that had been tucked under the table the following day, was still there.

Once again, it was a self-service breakfast. The bacon had been under the heat lamp for too long and it had dried out and become inedible.

After our failed attempt at visiting Arundells the previous day we considered visiting on our way home. But that was not to be, because it is closed on Wednesdays. Instead, we decided to visit Coughton Court where we knew that the family had recently taken over day to day management of the property the National Trust after several years of the Trust managing it. The Throckmorton family lease Coughton Court from the National Trust who currently own it.

There had been a bad crash on the motorway causing a long delay which meant that we arrived at Coughton just in time for lunch. We found that Magnus Birch Throckmorton, the latest Throckmorton descendent was helping in the café. He got chatting to us about various things including the National Trust and how the National Trust had looked after the family and the property.

After lunch we visited the house first, where I forgot that the priest hole was part way up the spiral staircase which I had elected not to climb. I am fascinated by priest holes so we will have to go back.

We walked around the gardens, including taking a pathway on the nearside of the river bank, although it was a little early in the year to see them at their best. We were told that the best time to visit the gardens is in June.

On the way home, Mr C spotted a sign to a farm shop. We got there just before it closed and he was able to pick up the ingredients for Spaghetti Bolognese della Casa.

Breakfast was self-service and, as we had come to expect, there were only a few others in the breakfast room.

We drove to Salisbury to visit the Cathedral and tick off a third Cathedral of our trip in my Cathedral passport. It has been a long time since our previous visit and I had forgotten how lovely some of the Cathedral’s features are.

We had lunch in the Cathedral café where I chose mushrooms on ciabatta which was very tasty. I purchased a couple of guidebooks and a pin badge before leaving. We were hoping to visit Arundells, the former home of Edward Heath but we arrived to find that it was guided tours only on a Tuesday. Our HH membership does not cover guided tours which meant we would have to pay £15 each. We decided to leave Arundells for another day when we could explore the house at our own pace.

We returned to Winchester and had afternoon refreshments in that Cathedral’s café. It seems we like our Cathedral Café refreshment breaks. Suitably refreshed we set off on a walk to find a quiet pathway and secret garden that we had enjoyed our previous visits. We found the pathway but the entrance to the secret garden eluded us.

Our route took us past the Bishops Palace and Cheyney Court and through the archway to the delightful church of St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate which is always a joy to see inside. The route also took us along the River Itchen which was flowing fast after the recent rain. We also walked past remains of Nunnaminster & St Mary’s Abbey which I had completely forgotten about.

We returned to our hotel to find that the booked room service had not taken place (again). Our early morning cuppa had resulted in one of the teabags bursting leaving the contents of the bag in the bottom of the cup. We could easily have sorted this out for ourselves but to make a point Mr C went to reception and requested new cups along with missing tea, milk, sugar and biscuits!

Later we dined in The Royal Gurkha where I chose chicken shashlik, the best I have ever tasted. Mr C chose a spicy lamb dish which was hotter than he is used to; it brought tears to his eyes.

After dining we called in at the nearby Wetherspoons, which we knew would serve good wine and beer and would be open until (at least) 11pm. We had no intention of being sent to our room early like naughty little children for the second night running. We were able to chill out in a lovely vibrant atmosphere watching the world go by.

We arrived at the breakfast room a little later than usual to find that breakfast room had more people in it than on previous days. This meant that the self-service breakfast was warmer than the previous day.

We drove to Chichester to visit the Cathedral and get another stamp in my Cathedral passport. We enjoyed the Cathedral in a way that we didn’t when we stayed in Chichester many years ago. On our previous visit the space was full of artworks obscuring the architecture so we could not enjoy the Cathedral at its best.

We had lunch in the Cathedral Café, where after having had a cooked breakfast, I opted for an Apple Danish pastry (one of my five a day ????).

After lunch we walked around the nearby Bishop’s Palace gardens which looked delightful in the sunshine. As we walked through the town towards the car it was sad to see empty shops where businesses had closed in the main street. I was also saddened to see homeless people; I don’t remember seeing any on my previous visit.

We set the SatNav to avoid motorways and drove back to Winchester via a leisurely route through the countryside in glorious sunshine.

Later we dined in Brasserie Blanc where I chose vegetable risotto, which was delicious, and Mr C chose steak followed by a cheeseboard. After dining we called in at the nearby Royal Oak for a post dinner drink. The beer wasn’t to Mr C’s taste so we returned to the hotel for one last drink before retiring to our room for the evening.

We arrived at the hotel shortly after 10pm to be told that the bar had just closed! The girl behind the bar was on the phone to her boss at the time and explained that customers had just arrived and asked if they could be served. The answer was NO!

We walked off in disgust. We were not experiencing the advertised 5-star rating that the hotel advertises. So far, it was the worst ever hotel had I had ever experienced. We were both regretting booking the extra two nights on the spur of the moment, just because we could now that Mr C has retired.

It is the management of the various facilities which all seem to be subcontracted out that is the problem, the staff were mostly lovely. I suspect part of the problem is the hotel struggling to cover its costs. By now I was noticing that the quality of things such as serviettes and toilet paper had declined since we arrived.

The breakfast room was still very quiet and lacking atmosphere. The self-service offering was luke warm rather than hot.

After breakfast we chilled out in our room looking out over the Cathedral green before it was time to attend the 11.15 Easter Day service in the Cathedral. The service was excellent and we received communion from the Bishop and Archdeacon. When it came for the greeting part of the service, the Bishop walked up the aisle shaking people’s hands. As he shook mine, he said to me, ‘I had better not go to much further I might not get back in time’. He then walked his way back shaking hands on the opposite aisle.

Before leaving the Cathedral, we went to see the Easter Garden that the flower ladies had been creating during our visit the previous day. We once again met the Bishop and also the newly installed Dean as we headed out of the Cathedral into the sunshine.

We hopped in our car which was parked in the hotel car park, right next to the Cathedral. Our destination was Bucklers Hard which is a short walk down the river from Beaulieu. When we arrived, we had lunch in the Captain’s Table tea shop before visiting the museum.

The Museum documents the history of the 18^th century shipbuilding in the village of Bucklers Hard. Bucklers Hard is famous as a naval ship building centre. Warships for Nelson’s Navy were built there. The Museum also displays village life in the 1800s and how village life changed in the 19^th and 20^th century from lively shipbuilding activities to sleepy rural hamlet.

We then walked down to the harbour visiting the open house and church along the way. We arrived at the harbour shortly before a boat tour of the river was due to start. There were only six of us on the trip so we were able to see the views on both sides of the river, the captain highlighting points of interest along the way.

We had just enough time to briefly visit the exhibition of archaeology which displays items that were found during an excavation of the boatyard. We watched a video but the exhibition closed before we could fully explore the exhibits.

We freshened up and relaxed in our room, which had been serviced (no biscuits!) before dining in Chesil Rectory. The food was excellent and every bit as good as I remembered it when we last visited over 10 years ago. We both had duck as our main course and shared a rhubarb frangipane dessert.

It being Sunday the Crown and Anchor was closed so we returned to the hotel for a nightcap. It was quiet in the bar although there was a noisy group in the restaurant area.

After a while I heard the barman say ‘I think I can close the bar in 15 or 16 minutes. After about 10 minutes he told us he was closing the bar and that we were welcome to take our drinks to our room. So we asked him for another glass of wine to take to the room and were advised that the bar was already shut. Mr C said ‘I didn’t hear you call last orders’ and I asked if we could order a glass via room service. The response was ‘no we don’t do that any more the bar is a separate company from the hotel. Sorry Guys.’ He clearly wasn’t sorry at all and couldn’t have cared less!

We promptly left, both of us feeling underwhelmed by the experience.

I awoke refreshed, the bed was so cosy and comfortable. When we arrived in the breakfast room it was surreal, there being only one other couple in the room (a few others arrived as we were about to leave). We were given a menu of breakfast items that were cooked to order. I enjoyed what I ordered, although Mr C was not completely satisfied with his breakfast.

Before returning to our room, we reported some minor issues with our room; a bedside light was not working, the shower hose did not allow water to flow and the curtain had slipped off the rail. We were surprised when a man from the maintenance team arrived at our room a few minutes after us. He fixed the light immediately; it had been unplugged behind the bedside table where we had not thought to look. He took the other issues away to be repaired later in the day.

Our destination of the day was Beulieu Motor Museum. Mr C’s SatNav did not choose the most direct route. When we arrived near to where we were supposed to be it took us on a circuitous route where we never quite arrived at our destination. The detour gave us the pleasure of driving through the New Forest and seeing the delightful wild horses.

Realising that we were ‘getting nowhere’ we stopped to reprogramme the SatNav, using the town and not the postcode. By this stage we were missing my TomTom with its more accurate and accommodating route directions plus live traffic updates. As we travelled on the more direct route to our destination we encountered a long line of traffic in the opposite direction. The hold up was a random donkey trotting up the road in front of the line of traffic.

We eventually arrived at our destination and parked in one of the few remaining parking spaces.

We chose to visit the Abbey and House before the Motor Museum. Stepping away from the museums and entrance area, the crowds thinned out and we were left with peace and quiet.

The house had items of interest that weren’t part of the experience on our previous visit. The interestingly themed bedrooms and bathrooms were a delight to see, as was the display of photographs and memories of the late marquess that his son the current marquess had personally chosen to share in memory of his father.

We walked back to the café and museum area via the gardens where we didn’t linger long; it was too early in the year for the garden displays. In the café we enjoyed sharing a sandwich which we each followed by cakes of our choice.

We enjoyed the motor galleries and were reminded of some of our favourite exhibits. Afterwards we returned to the café for a drink before our return journey to Winchester. Once again, the SatNav was trying to take us on a weird route. We ignored it, forcing it to take us on a more direct route to our destination.

Eventually we arrived back at the hotel to find that all the maintenance work had been sorted out, although the debris from the faulty shower had been left behind next to the tea and coffee facilities. Room service, which you have to order each day, had been a little half hearted, the bed had not been made up.

We chilled out in the room before it was time to dine in Rick Stein’s Restaurant. The food was delicious. I chose a soft-shelled crab burger, which to my shame, I forgot to photograph. The crab came complete with legs which are completely edible. For a Friday night, the restaurant was not as full as it had been on our previous visits. Probably a sign of the times and prices. This was the most expensive meal we have had in recent times. It was almost as expensive as the tasting menu and wine flight we enjoyed in the Peacock at Rowsley for our anniversary in 2025. The meal at the Peacock included more personal and attentive service, making it a very memorable experience.

After dining we returned to the Crown and Anchor which was lively and noisy in a different way than the previous evening. It was Karaoke night and everyone was having a lot of fun.

We like to spend the Easter weekend in a location where we can join the Sunday Easter service in one of the English Cathedrals. This year we chose Winchester, a place where we have previously enjoyed several mini breaks.

We broke our long, tedious journey for lunch at Gilks Garage café in Kineton.  The Café is themed to its former use in the motor trade. The menu is extensive and I was spoilt for choice, eventually settling on a vegetarian (vegetable) sausage bap. The sausages were served on a lightly toasted bun. Another hidden gem revealed to me by the Extra Mile book.

Suitably refreshed we continued our journey to Winchester stopping briefly at a service station for a leg stretch. When we arrived in Winchester we booked into our hotel, The Winchester Wessex. It is no longer a Mercure hotel and has been rebranded as Winchester Wessex Hotel by Sunday.

First impressions were favourable; we were greeted by a lovely young man who booked us into our room. The room itself, one that looks over the Cathedral Green with a view of the Cathedral, had been spruced up and looked cleaner and fresher than it did on our previous visit several years ago.

We dumped our bags in the room and headed into town where we checked out the board game shop. We were overwhelmed by the number of board games on offer. One game had been on my radar for a while but I chose to leave it on the shelf (for now). We had a mooch around Waterstones and Robert Dyas before returning to the hotel to unpack and enjoy a refreshing cup of tea.

When it was time to dine, we walked to the nearby Fish and Chip Shop, Shoal, for a freshly cooked chippy dinner. I chose haddock accompanied by a glass of rose wine. The food was delicious.

The night was still young so we retired to the nearby Crown and Anchor which had Timothy Taylor Landlord Ale on tap. That made Mr C content and, of course I chose a lovely glass of rose wine. The atmosphere was comfy and initially quiet until a group of very loud ladies settled on the table next to us. This caused one gentleman drinking quietly on his own to beat a hasty retreat (after finishing his beer) to move to another nearby pub.

During my stay at the Wykeham Arms in Winchester I was intrigued by slots in the dining tables which stated ‘for the cathedral’.

You will notice that the pub has a number of historical themes. Most notably that of Lord Nelson and Winston Churchill. Our long bar as you enter through the iconic curved front doors is named after Nelson, and the smaller bar ti its left Hamilton. We also have two bedrooms named after England’s former vice Admiral and his lady love. It is reputed that he stayed here on his way to Portsmouth. Sadly he didn’t sign the visitor’s book, but we will have to stick with the story regardless.

As for Churchill, he was revered by former license couple of the Wykeham arms, Graeme and Ann Jameson. The far dining room is named in Graeme’s memory. The couple tirelessly collected all of the authentic bric-a-brac you see around the house, and also implemented the Cathedral donation slots you will notice in the tables. This was, and still is, to collect funds to restore the cathedral.  In the 1980’s Graeme created this fundraising idea, and in its first year pledged to match each pound collected with a pound of his own. £30000 was pulled from the coin boxes, and Graeme stayed true to his word. A bond was forged with the cathedral that remains to this day.*

*Information quoted from the hotel information book.

We didn’t set off to Winchester as early as we planned and after picking up my mum and a brief stop on the motorway led to us arriving in Winchester at lunch time. We parked on the hotel car park and Mr C went to reception to tell them that we had arrived and would be leaving our car on the car park. He was informed that the rooms were ready so we decided to book in before having lunch. Booking in turned out to be a bit of a saga… The French receptionist couldn’t understand why two identical room bookings had different room rates. Mr C tried to explain that it was because one was single occupancy and the difference was the breakfast rate. The receptionist didn’t understand, but thankfully a colleague sorted him out. Eventually we booked in and took our bags up to our rooms!

After the booking in saga we set out for a late lunch in the Cathedral Refectory. Mum,Mr C & I all chose cheese and watercress scones, watercress being a speciality of the area and they were delicious We then made our way to the cathedral, stopping off at its gift shop along the way. The gift shop had some delightful christmas decorations and advent candles, which we decided we would come back and buy just before we left Winchester.

Our visit to the Cathedral was not as peaceful as it had been was on our previous visit. It was a Saturday and lots of guided tours were taking place. Previously I enjoyed peace and tranquility in the North & South transepts but on this occasion both were disrupted. The North transept is housing a temporary structure to display the Winchester Bible whilst the South transept is undergoing restoration. and is currently closed. It houses the Fisherman’s Chapel which I found so peaceful last time. The disruption led to us noticing features unseen on our previous visit and we very much enjoyed seeing the historically important Winchester Bible in its temporary home. We just missed seeing it on our previous visit when it was being shipped to America for display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

As we left the  we were caught by a brief shower of rain, so we retired once again to the Cathedral Rectory for a refreshing cup of tea, before returning to the hotel to unpack our bags, before we dined in the ‘Old Vine’, which was just as good as we remembered it from our previous visit. We called in at a pub on our way back to the hotel, but the music was so loud that we couldn’t hear ourselves think. We returned to the hotel where we could chat more easily and enjoy a nightcap before bed even though there was a wedding disco with kids noisily charging around the hotel.

I have just returned from my annual autumnal travels with my mum. On this occasion we travelled to the fine Cathedral city of Winchester

We were a little behind schedule and left an hour later than planned.  We had decided against plan A which was a visit to Avebury to break our journey to Winchester. We didn’t want to rush the visit.  As we journeyed south we also shelved plan B which was to visit a National Trust property called The Vyne because we decided there wasn’t enough time to do that justice either. After stopping at Warwick services to buy sandwiches from Waitrose, which we ate in the car we moved on to plan C.

We stopped in a town called Newbury and enjoyed a cup of tea by the side of the river whilst watching the swans and narrow boats. After our cuppa we went for a stroll around the town and visited St. Nicholas Church before resuming our journey.

As we approached the hotel a fire engine we followed a fire engine with a rotating platform. It turned off before arrived at the hotel car park. On arrival at the car park the attendant booked us in and advised us that there were currently no spaces and that we should try the staff car park just around the corner. If that was full we were to come back as a few cars were just about to leave. There were no spaces on the staff car park but we found the fire engine with its rotating platform parked up outside. We drove back to the hotel and managed to find an awkward space and wiggle into it. As we did this a standard fire engine drove past us in the direction of the Cathedral.

We checked in and went to find our room with a view over the Cathedral grounds. On entering our ‘Room with a View’ we noticed the fire engine with the rotating platform fully extending and performing some activity in relation to the Cathedral building. There were firemen everywhere. After this bit of excitement we fetched the bags out of the car and unpacked before going out for dinner in Loch Fyne.

After the meal Mr C was drawn by the sound of music coming from inside one of the local pubs.  The entrance was up an alley way and it didn’t have a good feel (to me) so I held back and stepped aside to let one of the locals come past me. He helped us find the kind of pub that Mr C was really looking for. It was called ‘The Oak’ and its claim to fame was being the oldest pub in England…

When we arrived at the hotel earlier in the day, I started experiencing an excruciating pain in the top upper part of my back if I twisted in the wrong direction.  This had got worse over the evening and I was hoping it was going to have recovered by the morning… I think it had been brought on when I was adjusting the seat as we set off in the morning. Mr C had suddenly accelerated causing the car seat to shoot backwards…