Last day (for us) & Handover of Brunnehilda to Thom & Rach - 9th Dec ‘19

A strange day today - were going home without Brunnehilda!

A lovely winter’s day again today ... rather cold but lots of busts of blue sky and sun with no horrible rain around to dampen spirits.

Kim tidied the van up and I emptied and filled stuff ready for the baton to be handed over ...
Thom and Rach arrived at about 12.15.  We gave them a quick tour round of Brunnehilda and set off to show them the walk over the Great Park to town.

It was a lovely afternoon and the dogs thoroughly enjoyed their run in the mud!

A brief lentil and rice lunch on the Market - courtesy of the same folks that came to the campsite on Friday - Cotswold Made. We left T&R at Waitrose as we hit the Fosse Way at about 1.45 - leaving us 1 3/4 hrs to get to West Haddon and pick up the Twinnies.

It was a good run, making it with 2 mins to spare. With no Brunnehilda in tow we could afford for the right foot to go down!

It feels odd leaving Brunnehilda in someone else’s hands - no matter how capable!
We go back down the Fosse on Thursday morning to help pack her up and get her back to Whilton.

Cirencester Park Caravan Club Site
Pros:
1) Superb position - gorgeous 30 minute walk thru Park to town
2) Due to lack of winter foliage, we did get ourselves a nice view across the Park
3) Friendly enough staff
4) Spotless toilets and showers
5) Smashing visiting takeaway food van on Friday night
6) Good 4G
Cons:
1) Extended and inconvenient toilet shut times - 10.30 to 12
2) Wet and muddy
3) Friendly determination to have you park “their way”
4) Chemical toilet disposal a real trek away
5) Felt cramped when full but a bit desolate when empty

Laura, George and boys join us at Cirencester & Bourton- 8th Dec ‘19

Not a great day weather wise! Lots of wind and rain overnight and plenty of showers during the day. The upshot bring the site (and everywhere!) is very wet and muddy!

The normal leisurely (aka lazy!) morning getting ready for the arrival of the MacArthurs at about 1.30. They arrived in one of those shower storms so they piled into Brunnehilda and ate buckets full of crisps as we waited for the rain to stop.

When it had, we walked across the Great Park to Ciro. There were plenty of other dogs for Lottie to play with / annoy. Although 5 months old and getting quite big, she is showing no real signs of slowing down! She is great fun and still gets a lot of “puppy” attention from fellow doggers!

We walked around the town with “spending stops” at the sweet shop and the book shop. So the boys were stocked up for the walk home back across the Park. Of course the rain can back at this stage so it made it quite a trek at the end.

We jumped in the cars at the campsite and went straight off to Bouton on the Water. As we were so close it made sense to have our annual pilgrimage see see the “tree on the water”.

Before we walked round the atmospherically Christmas lit village, we had something to eat at De La Hayes restaurant. The food was good and the staff superb - including giving the boys a present from Santa each. As usual with the MacArthur boys, you can’t get through a meal without at least one incident ... Charlie and Finn managed to pour a complete glass of coke other themselves just as we were finishing.

After the walk round, the MacArthurs got off home and Kim and I sat by the tree and finished our coffees. Then the 30 minute drive back to the warmth of Brunnehilda.

Kim thinks we’re bouncing again so I need to check the stats again in the morning. No chance of doing that tonight as the rain has really set in.

Lots of Modern Family and another episode of Ken Burns history of country music - Kim has tired of Sneaky Pete - before bed. Oh, and we also managed a game of Canasta - a reassuring thrashing to make up for the inhalation of me last time we played. The earth is thankfully now back on its axis!

Bella goes up & an afternoon out in Cirencester - 7th Dec ‘19

The first few hours of this morning were fantastically warm and sunny but then from mid morning it clouded over and make a rather mild grey day.

After a nourishing omelette, we started our list of chores. Firstly I sorted out the water and then the slightly unstable Brunnehilda - in the dark last night I hadn’t put a couple of the corner stays down properly. If I’m honest I was putting her up slightly stressed / mad which is never a good state of mind for following a process!

At 11am we started the Bella erection! She didn’t seem to go up as easily as her inaugural outing in Harrogate - don’t know why though? Anyway, Kim stepped up and re-watched the You-tube instruction video which helped.

Before .....

As before, the most challenging bit was putting those damn pegs in the hard standing. I’ve invested in a new mallet but I think I need some more expensive pegs? After Bella was up Kim put some Xmas lights on her and I went for a shower and change of clothes.

... After

Bella took about 2 hours, which was longer than a typical “big sister” Isabella erection. But clearly size isn’t always an indication of time taken!

After a cup of tea we headed into town over the Great Park and down the beautiful Cecily Hill, by the biggest yew hedge in the World (honestly it is, we Googled it!) and into the Town Centre.

We spent a very pleasant hour or so strolling around the Christmas lights, the wee lanes and markets as well as finding a nice park just behind the church - don’t know how we’ve missed it before!

We even had time to run an important statistical survey during our walk from caravan site to TC - there were 6 spaniels and 6 collies!!

We had a cup of tea before calling into Waitrose to buy dinner. We then walked home back up the hill by the Kebab van and bought a portion of fries - thus rendering the tea purchased not a moment earlier from Waitrose null and void for tonight!

Noticed something today about the campsite - nearly all the caravans and camper vans are very new. There are no old rigs at all! Kim thinks it may be that it’s only rich old fogeys can afford to holiday this time of year but I think it’s a weather thing ... you really wouldn’t want to be in an old van in the winter?! Also, the campsite is pretty much full!

More TV / Amazon Prime, a bowl of cereal for supper and then off to bed! The wind is getting up again but Bella seems quite happy.

From Padstow to Cirencester - 6th Dec ‘19

A very wet moving day!

And a story of a record quick pack up and a record slow set up!

We were up and at it after a quick breakfast and had Brunnehilda all ready to go I’m about 45 mins!
We rolled off the pitch at 10.45, leaving the site promising ourselves this was definitely a site to return to - see pros and cons below.

It was about a 4 hour journey to Ciro that we split up with an hours stop at a rather grotty McDonalds Services at Cullompton. We avoided the McDs and Costa and went for a bakery - probably should have stuck with one of the big boys?!

At the grotty services - but at least we got a space!

Moments before Kim gave up and admitted she hated this vegetarian pasty!

We arrived at the site at a perfect time - with about 30 mins of daylight left to break the back of the set up! Well that didn’t work! This is one of these sites that has very definite ideas of how you park your van - just like Hitler had very definite ideas about the master race!

We found a spot, motor moved Brunnehilda in front ways to avoid any bad feelings about nasty foreigners taking up all our best places. I got her all levelled and set up in good time and Kim went to tell them on reception which pitch we had picked. She came back with the extremely helpful info that if we were in that particular pitch we had to have the van right up against one side - funnily enough, not where I had put her! So, now in the dark I had to move her and attempt to get her level again - not possible this time as we are now on quite a steep left to right drop.

The end result was twice as long taken to pitch, we’re on a definite slope and a reinforcement of my hatred of bloody rules and petty regulations!

The evening got significantly better when we bought dinner from a stall that had set up on site - Cotswold Made - a Persian style fusion (or so they said!). The food was spot on and the folks were smashing. They only took cash and we only had a tenner, so like kids in a sweet shop they gave us a tenners worth - and to their huge credit, a bit more!

We finished the day with an unusual thing for us - live TV! Via the BBC I-player App. We also watched a couple of episodes of an Amazon series called Sneaky Pete which was rather good.

Bella goes up tomorrow - assuming there are no more rules to follow on that?! If there is I might just explode!

Padstow Touring Park:
Pros:
1) The best ever toilets / showers - like a 5 star hotel!
2) Perfect 30 minute walk into town - we just weren’t fit enough to do it!
3) Super friendly reception staff - even asking me to park front ways in was done nicely!
4) Good 4 G reception
5) Fantastic shop
6) Reg number recognition security gates so no need for codes / cards - see cons
7) Perfectly kept - given the wet weather everywhere looked pristine
8) Toilets didn’t shut for cleaning - the only UK one not to!
Cons:
1) One time the reg number recognition security gate didn’t work!
2) A bit of road noise but not too bad
3) No great view from our particular pitch - there were better ones but we didn’t get to choose!

I think this is a hard one to beat for best UK site to date - especially if we’d managed to pick our own pitch with a view!

Gloucs & Worcs (June '19) - Day 3

Bobby came over with dogs late last night. We headed off for a late night shop st Tesco’s to buy a quilt and some more essentials. By the time we met up and got the car parked it was well after 11. Kim made up the dinette bed. It looked as long as the fixed bed so I had s quick try - crack, bang, scrape ... I was on the floor and the bed had collapsed! To be fair to Brunnehilda I may not have clicked it into place properly but ... the design (4 very small screws holding it up)  is not great! We got it propped up on cushions to allow it to be used as a bed.
Oh, BTW, it is as long as the other bed!!

Weather not as good today but all had a good night. 3 adults and 2 rather confused collies fitted in and all seemed to have had a good night sleep?
The sun did poke it’s head out for a bit after we finished another alfresco breakfast fry up. The walk through the park into Cirencester was gorgeous. We had a coffee in the sun before walking back. The dogs thoroughly enjoying the leg stretch after a confined nights sleep.

In the afternoon we went back into Cirencester with the car - lots of things to buy from DIY, pet and camping shops! We still had time for a very good value cup of tea in Cirencester town centre - £1 each. Thumbs up to Caffe Kilim (3 Market Place) ... Afterwards we walked round a rather eclectic but nevertheless impressive array of old cars being shown in the main Square.

Back to Brunnehilda for a snack. Well to be fair we snacked in Isabella as by this time the weather had broken and it was drizzling then raining then pouring, may be rubbish weather but it did prove that  Isabella is fully waterproof - yippee.

We were planning a walk into Cirencester for dinner. The weather had other plans - you can’t change the weather so just change your plans!! Yeh, screw you English June weather!
Fab meal at The Fleece https://www.thefleececirencester.co.uk/. You could have moved a small family into Kim’s steak and ale pie. My Flatbread was nice but the wrong choice.

Kim and Ben (one of the collies!) headed home at about 8.30 - well someone has to earn some money in this family!

Bobby, Tilly (the other collie) and I settled down for a restful evening - Bobby writing a work proposal, Tilly watching the dogs walking by the awning en-route to the dog exercise field and me just chilling. After 37 years of e-mail fuelled Sunday nights, I’m getting used to this chilling malarkey!

So last night was the first night with dogs, tonight is the first night without Kim!

Gloucs & Worcs (June '19) - Day 2

Thank God for Nick from Exeter!

Absolutely perfect weather today - warm and pleasant sunshine from 8 in the morning (it may have been sunny before then but we wouldn't have known!) until 9 at night.

June 22nd will forever be known as Isabella Day. Straight after a fry up in the morning sun, we started the erection of the awning. And thats where Nick from Exeter comes in .. not only did we borrow his steps (otherwise I would have never of reached the top of the van) but we took advantage of his 35 years of caravanning! And Nick wasn't the sort to pass instructions from afar ... no Nick was a get your sleeves rolled up sort of a guy.

So after an instructional couple of hours in the sun, with Nick by our side, we got Isabella fully erected. She'll do - although I want to get her a bit tidier each time I do it. I think I could become a bit anal about Isabella's lines!?

BTW Nick wasn't just some random guy - he and his wife, Helen, were in the next door van with their 6 (yes, six) perfectly behaved Cocker Spaniels.

After Isabella was safely pegged out we walked through the beautiful Great Park http://cirencesterpark.co.uk/ directly into the centre of Cirencester. A welcome cup of tea and slice of cake at Keiths http://restaurantwebexperts.com/KeithsCoffeeShop/ got us in the mood for a bit of shop browsing. Not too long though, after a 20 minute relax on a seat out side the Corn Hall we pressed on back up the hill to Brunnehilda - the Park was closed by this time so the walk home wasn't as pleasant.

The fish and chip van was visiting the caravan site and it seemed rude and inhospitable not to buy some. So while I re-pegged Isabella - I realised a big booboo (see picture) on my return - Kim went to buy some chips.

We ate the chips outside in the evening sunshine with Brunnehilda and Isabella looking splendid behind us. I'm a very lucky man - on my travels with 3 strong and beautiful women! I'll get the sick bag ....

Gloucs & Worcs (June ‘19) - Day 1

Trip 2 started with the first non-wet June day for a couple of weeks. Kim went off to earn some money for the morning leaving me to get everything packed in the car. That task was completed relatively easily which lulled me into a false sense of security for downloading some viewing material - my Mac wasn’t having any of it so I packed the Sopranos full box set and a box set of Cohen Brothers films -about 6 weeks of viewing for a 9 day trip!

We got to Brunnehilda at about 2.15 and were on the road before 2.45. I was particularly proud of the fact I didn’t use the mover to get her hitched. Quiyte sad really but a fair reflection of my current reversing confidence! The Volvo’s reversing camera was particularly useful though. All went off without a problem until we noticed after a few hundred yards that we were mirror less! Easily fixed and back on our way.

An uneventful 2 hour journey down the Fosse Way arriving at Cirencester Park Caravan Club https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-sites/england/cotswolds/gloucestershire/cirencester-park-caravan-club-site/site just before 5. The lady who signed us in was particularly smiley and helpful. Stopped at the Motorhome station to fill up with water - no aqua roll lugging for Brunnehilda. 60 mins later and we were  all set up - except the awning! We put that off until the morning. I did feel a bit of a caravan newbie though. Partly because Kim was stopping everyone that was walking by and telling them we were first timers but mainly because I used the mover for the most simple of backing moves - the plots are very big and easy to access so I really should have left the mover controller in the glove box!

  

It was a gorgeous evening so we walked into Cirencester. We had a very adequate Indian at a place called Sultans https://www.sultancirencester.com/#/. It was top of the Trip Advisor list but the Peshwari Nast was the only thing that I had that justified such a high score - IMHO! A trip to Waitrose on the way home to stock up for tomorrow mornng’s breakfast.

Time for an early night. Isabella awaits us in the morning and I think she is going to be quite a demanding lady?!