Studley Castle Hotel, and Stratford Upon Avon

Although the skies looked grey when we arrived it was such a relief to see the hotel when we pulled up.

  The journey on the last Bank Holiday of the year before Christmas had been horrendous.  What should have been a three hour drive ... with perhaps a stop for lunch ... had turned out to be an almost six hour drive with a much needed break at the services.  We had to queue in the car just to get into the motorway services, so you can imagine the hordes of people in there!!

We don't normally go away, or even have a day trip on a Bank Holiday, but we had to take advantage of Jason and Tash, their one week holiday off work and their need of a break at our house to be able to leave Ginger in good hands.  Although he still looks good in photos he is actually a frail old boy these days, and he has to come first.

 

The view from our patio at the back of the hotel.  

I sat out here every morning.  I rise early and Alan rises late, so it was the perfect place to listen to the birdsong, watch the sheep in the fields, drink coffee and read my book without disturbing Alan.

The coffee and 'afternoon tea' lounge.

We had coffee in there just the once as it made no sense to pay for a coffee when we had such good brewing up facilities in our room.

Where we sat.

We had a mooch about the hotel on our third day, this is the main staircase.

Alan lay on the floor to get me a photograph of the stained glass shields at the top of the tower.  So I dropped my bag down on him and filmed a little clip for Instagram. He enjoyed the little lie down.  😄

The photo he got, slightly wonky ... but then so is my man.  😁

Looking down from the gallery where we were, Well I looked down, Alan is afraid of heights and this was just too high for him.

A typical start to breakfast.

Usually followed by a full 'English' for Alan and fried bread with fried eggs for me.

A typical evening meal main course chosen from the buffet.

We had three courses most nights, although my only choice for a dessert was the vegan salted caramel ice-cream or a face pullingly tangy lemon sorbet, slightly disappointing.

Tuesday was the highlight of the week, we went on the coach trip to Stratford Upon Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare.

It was so busy along the main street, with hoards of overseas visitors clustered around their tour guides. We kept it simple and strolled along the street admiring the wonderful architecture as we went.

William Shakespeare's birthplace, way back in 1564, now a museum.  

We didn't go in, there were huge queues and it was far too hot to be indoors with a large throng of people.  We sat outside the café opposite and drank coffee and ate chips with mayonnaise.

We made our way to the end of the main high street to the river, or is this part the canal?  We had no idea, but a tourist carrying wide-beam went into the lock, so I suspect it's the canal that leads to the river.

We sat for quite a while in the sun listening to possibly one of the poshest buskers ever on his baby grand piano.  (I did once see a cello and violin playing pair in  Oxford.)

His repertoire was amazing, but how he coped in the heat I really don't know.

More swans, gorgeous bridges.

A lovely memorial.

We walked back down the high street after a hour or so and went into M&S for a coffee, and to buy me a pair of jeans.  I had forgotten to bring my second pair, so I had one pair of jeans to my name and for some reason Alan had brought THREE pairs of trainers with him.

Our packing for holidays obviously needs improving!!

Words carved into the pavements.

This is a library I would love to be a member of.  💖

The final nights entertainment back at the hotel was a Burlesque and comedy show, and it was really good.  Although with an average age of about 70 in the audience I was hoping the guys had all taken their blood pressure medication!!

With the week over I got together all our saved freebies, it was quite a stash but I did leave behind a lot of the coffees, just tipping some of them into my little jar that travels on all holidays with me ... did I mention that I am a Nescafe addict!!  There are so many biscuits there as they all contained milk so I couldn't eat any of them.  Alan will be eating them up over the course of this week for his elevenses.

So that was our holiday to Studley Castle in Warwickshire, our third Warner Leisure Hotel in the last three years.  

Thanks to all of you who asked to see the photos, and apologies to any of you who like me feel like going to sleep over other peoples holiday snaps.  😄

Sue xx