Our weekend in Woolacombe

Last weekend we all went away for a long weekend courtesy of The Sun (a newspaper for those not in the UK). By the time we booked there was a very limited selection and so we booked to go back to North Devon, having only been there relatively recently. We went down late on Friday night as we had to wait for school to finish and as google maps predicted the journey time would be at least an hour longer if we went directly after school we took the little man to his swimming lesson first then had a McDonalds and  left around 5. It took about 4 hours as the traffic was horrendous near Bristol.

The caravan we stayed in was clean and had everything we would need for a weekend, although it had a distinctively early 90's feel, I've never seen so much peach or fake pine and the gas fire was as I remember friends having in their houses when we were kids. The kids loved it mind and the little man called it a camper van all weekend. The site was immaculate and not at all dated.

The first day we went to Woolacombe beach, which is beautiful, clean and had a little cove two minutes away that was packed full of shells. I spent ages gathering them but the kids got bored before me and we had to move on, shameful, they need to learn the joy of shell collecting!

In the afternoon we made the most of our National Trust membership and went to Arlington court, which has the national carriage collection. Now I've read more romance novels than is healthy for an adult female and I just loved seeing all the different types of carriage I've read about; James and the kids not so much. The house however was lovely, really homely and the NT have once again removed all the ropes to allow you to wonder the rooms and get a real feel for the place. In the former nursery old toys are on display and the kids are encouraged to play with them all. In the evening we went to the local chip shop and had some local fish and chips, they were tasty as always.

Sunday was spent looking around some small coastal villages and towns and we finished the day in Ilfracombe harbour buying fudge and having the cobwebs blown away.

Monday was very wet and windy but we left after breakfast stopping at another National trust property, Tyntesfield near Bristol to break up the journey. That was another great day out, it had a great shop, and NT do a good shop! It also had beautiful walled vegetable gardens, the pumpkin display was awesome, I found some varieties I want to grow next year and so many apple trees, there was a display of heritage apple varieties to taste and some men on hand from a charity that promotes them. Again the house was beautiful, very grand and had an art display that lots of people enjoyed, though it's not my thing.

So it was a relaxing weekend away from the house and work and I would definitely book another Sun weekend.