Estepona Holiday

 During the February half term holiday we were fortunate enough to be able to take our nephew over to Estepona, near Marbella, Spain to see his Dad and spend the week there. As someone who does not do well with heat this was the perfect time for me to go as the temperature was low 20’s. It did feel strange waking up in the mornings to sun and warmth though.

We have never visited that part of Spain before and it was beautiful. Estepona is known as the Garden of the Costa del Sol and it was easy to see why. Even in February there was plenty of greenery and some flowers. Some of the streets in the old town were lined with orange trees which were full of  oranges and there were flowerbeds in the main street as well. There is also an Orchidarium in the centre of town which had some beautiful orchids growing.

As well as the flowers there is also a Mural trail you can follow. The town has allowed local artists to paint murals on the walls of buildings and there were some fantastic displays around the town. There is a map you can get which tells you where they are. It is continually being added to and at the time we went there were 62 murals to see.

As we had hired a car we decided to do a bit of sightseeing in other areas nearby. The first place we went to was Puerto Banus. We really only looked around the port area and there were some fantastic and very expensive yachts and the shops reflected that. I fell in love with a pair of Gucci sandals which I estimated laughably to be about £400 (you can tell I don’t do designer). They were in fact £750. Needless to say I didn’t get them.

I did enjoy a rather yummy cocktail in a boat shaped bar with a rather interesting design in the ladies bathroom though.

We saw some more yachts (but a little less grand) at Sotogrande where we experienced a bit of rain, which I found most welcome, to break up the monotony the daily sunshine. It was very quiet and so we only spent a couple of hours there as most places were closed as it was too early in the year. Matthew and our nephew enjoyed a rather large pancake each as they had missed out on Pancake Day a couple of days before.

Our favourite day was the Friday when we went to Selwo Aventura which was a zoo about half an hours drive away. It was my favourite as they had the most active Red Panda’s I had ever seen. I could have spent all day just watching them. It was a lot bigger than we anticipated as we ended up spending most of the day there and did lots of walking. I also loved the lemurs who all looked like they were meditating in the sun.

On our last day we went to Malaga as that was where we were flying home from. We had intended on visiting  the car and fashion museum but we had not allowed for the siesta closing times and we literally turned up as it closed. We took a walk along the promenade before going to Plaza Mayor which is a MacArthur Glen Designer village which was huge. We had called in to get something to eat when  we arrived on the first evening but we had not seen how big it actually was as we did not really explore due to the shops being closed and only the food outlets being open. If we go back then I will certainly plan on spending some more time (and money) there as well as in Malaga itself as we did not have the time to explore the town.

We hope that we can go back to Estepona as we really enjoyed it, especially in February. We would have liked to have gone over at Easter but the cost was triple what we paid in February which is absolutely ridiculous for exactly the same place, using the same airline just at a more popular time of year for holidays. That is the only problem with being restricted to school holidays. Something needs to be done to even things out in terms of cost so that maybe more parents could afford to go abroad and adults who work in schools who cannot take any other time off are not penalised as well.

Camping in the Cotswolds -Thursday and Friday

 

On Thursday we decided to make the most of our National Trust memberships and go to the house which caused us to take out the membership many years ago- Waddesdon Manor. This was the furthest we had travelled on our break being an hour away just in Buckinghamshire.

Waddesdon Manor was built by the Rothschild family and given to the National Trust in 1957. It is built in the style of a French Chateau and is our favourite National Trust property.

 

Tickets had to be pre-booked and because Penny was not allowed in the house we had to do two separate tours of the house. Unfortunately social distancing restrictions meant that we were unable to see all the rooms that are normally available but we did see lots of things we hadn’t seen on previous visits. My favourite was the broken plate chandelier that was in the dining room. It is modern yet it does fit in with the rest of the room. The jewellery was also something I would have liked to have worn.

 

When Emma and Sam went on their tour, Craig and I went to The Stables to grab a quick lunch. In that area there is space for different exhibitions to be held. I admit I have not normally bothered in the past but this time it was a display by a photographer called Nick Knight and it was called Roses from my Garden. We weren’t able to take photos inside the room so this is from the sign outside. All of the photos were taken on an iphone and using natural daylight. The photos are amazing. You cannot buy prints but you were able to buy them as a set of greeting cards which I did and will frame them to display on my living room wall.

 

I wish the weather had been better for the photos of the house but the whole day was showery and overcast.

We went to Bicester after to meet some old friends whom we haven’t been able to see. The road that we used to come into Bicester on was unrecognizable with all new developments and layout catering for Bicester Village. We did have a walk around Bicester Village but as I am not into the high end designer labels that are located there then there was not really a lot appealed to me, except the Emma Bridgewater outlet.  Bicester Town had changed as well, there were more bars and eateries then when we had lived there. There were relatively few empty shops which was good and some of the shops were still there when we lived there were still in business.

 We had a good time with our friends and they gave Craig an idea of a project that meant we would not need to buy a new tent. Our friends go walking and camping regularly but what they have done is bought a car which they have put in a removable camping box to convert the car into a micro camper.

 Friday was a relatively early start as we needed to pack everything up. It was still a bit showery but at least we did not have to worry about the tent being put away wet as the owner kindly let us put the tent in a skip that was on site. We had originally asked where the nearest recycling site was but he then said we could use his skip which was very nice of him.

 As Emma and Sam were getting the train into London from Oxford at 6.30pm rather than leave them with their suitcases for the day in Oxford we decided to spend the day with them. The first stop was Woodstock and Blenheim Palace. This was a quick stop just to have a walk around the grounds of Blenheim. There was a gate that allowed public access to most of the grounds for free which was useful as dogs are not allowed in some areas.

 

When we lived in Bicester, Oxford was not really a place I visited that often, probably only once or twice a year. It was good to visit again and actually walk around as a tourist. Emma wanted to see the Bodleian Library as it is the library in Harry Potter and also in Discovery of Witches. Unfortunately having Penny with us stopped us going into a lot of places (taking a dog into the centre of any town or city is not a good idea) but luckily the weather had brightened up so walking around was fine. I found the Story Museum which I would have loved to have gone into but it was closing. If I had been living in Bicester when the kids were younger I would have definitely taken them there. I loved what they had done with the phonebox outside.

 

The drive home was a bit of a drag and I was infuriated with the constant changing of the speed limits on the M6 which seemed totally unnecessary as the traffic was not overly heavy, but it was constantly 40 to 60 mph all the way so it added extra time onto the journey. Luckily we had a Harry Potter audio book to listen to which kept Matthew entertained and Penny just chilled out on the back seat all the way home, except when we stopped to see if she needed to toilet.

When we finally got home we just had a cup of tea and unloaded the cars putting everything into the front room. I was so happy to be go to bed and know that I was going to be comfortable and get a good nights sleep.

 The Cotswolds is not quite Colorado which is where we should have been, but it is a beautiful place to visit and there is plenty to do (though not with a computer mad teenage boy in tow). We did not see half of what is on offer in the area but I do think we saw some of the best bits.