Today starts even more relaxed than the previous days. We eat breakfast, play outside, read a book and buy bird feed so the children can feed the ducks. This is a great source of entertainment and they keep looking for new birds as they circle the fish pond. Next door is a tea room with a playground, a horse and a garden and today is the first time it’s open while we’re here. So we delay our start even further and go for tea and cake at 10.00. The kids love the swings and the cakes, Tim enjoys a proper cup of tea and Olga gets her coffee fix. The children pet the horse and are scared by the big chicken.
Just 20 minutes away lie some nice hills with a big national trust parking area. So we get picnic supplies in the nearby town and drive up to the parking. It’s quite busy with several big touring busses, but we can squeeze our car next to a bus and gear up for a hike under the clear blue almost Mediterranean sky. It’s a 40 minute uphill hike to a waterfall, all along the stream school boys and girls are doing measurement tasks. This explains the big busses. After a while the path clears and we climb higher and higher.
As we come up against a cliff we wonder were the path continues but are surprised to find that the small amount of water running over this cliff is the waterfall we were hiking towards. We take some photos, play in the stream, and turn around back towards the parking lot. As it was the first proper summer day we share an icecream amongst ourselves before we drive to the next stop.
Stokesay Castle is a fortified manor house which is one of the best surviving examples in England as it still looks today as it did in the 13th century when it was build. There is a treasure hunt for the children so they are running through the castle looking for clues. We find them all in the end and they are very happy with the stamp and sticker they receive as a reward.
Time to get back to our holiday house and the ducks and finish the day as we started it, relaxing with books and play.
Wat kijken jullie weer terug op een leuke dag. Cleo wordt al een echte berggeit. En wat een zon!