We’ve planned a quick getaway as a delayed birthday present for my other half which primarily consists of a day at Alton Towers but with stops on the way down and a quick visit to a local attraction before our journey home.
I’m not a fan of rollercoasters, in fact I don’t do rollercoasters at all , but we’re off to Alton Towers none the less and I’m just happy to have a few days away and since we’ve converted some Airmiles into tickets, its not going to cost the earth either.
So we head down to Stoke-on-Trent on the Sunday morning which is a 5 hour trip from our Glasgow home so I’ve planned a lunch stop in the Lake District. I’ve booked a boat cruise and planned to do a quick walk at both the stop off points of the cruise but unfortunately it’s tipping it down. We decide to abandon the walking plan.
A pretty rubbish first impression of the Lake District with the torrential rain, an overpriced car park and then being charged 40p to use what turned out to be a horrid bathroom with only one sink. Anyway, we ended up having lunch in the car before heading on our little boat journey.
The rain did go off and it was a nice little trip from Bowness-on-Windermere to Ambleside and back again. Nice views but we both agreed that we weren’t overly impressed with the Lake District. Perhaps we are spoiled for view in Scotland or maybe the gloomy day altered out perceptions but nice as it is we couldn’t really see what all the fuss is about.
So onward we go to our budget hotel which is outside Stoke-on-Trent in the Trentham Estate. We get there for dinner time but only after some quite frightening roads around the Stoke area. How do such badly designed motorways exist? And are all English drivers as crazy as those in Stoke?
We head out for little wander around before dinner and an early night ready for roller coasters in the morning. Luckily had brought lunch for the following day as we had forgotten that everything is shut on Sundays in England.