London Theatre & Sightseeing with Derek, Wendy & Jeanette

Meeting up at our London Docklands hotel, checked into our rooms and set off for a ride on the “Emirates” cable car ride which took us to the “O2” centre. We headed to the SKY studios where we were filmed reading the news and sports. We had our photos taken with some of our favourite stars.

 

We woke to beautiful weather on Wednesday, which was to stay with us for the whole of the holiday! We walked to the DLR and got off at Tower Gateway where we wandered around the Tower of London and walked along the Thames and lunched close to the Monument. Three brave souls went up to the top gallery where we had splendid views over London.  It was then onto Trafalgar Square and we jumped on an open top bus for a ride around London seeing many of the famous London landmarks. We stopped back at the Embankment and went for a drink in a pub that was famous for Sherlock Holmes having drunk there. From there we walked into Covent Garden, watched an escape artist and saw the lights that had recently been turned on.

 

On another bright and sunny day, we set off to Horse Guards Parade before walking through St James Park to Buckingham Palace where we had a great view of the changing of the guards and the parade of horses and gun carriages. We then jumped back onto an open top bus that took us to the Natural History Museum and we all enjoyed the wonderful exhibitions in store with dinosaurs and many other interesting animals and relics.

 

On another morning we set off for the Tower and got on-board a boat that took us firstly to Greenwich and then onto Westminster. It is a great way to see all the magnificent buildings along the river bank. We then jumped on board another open top bus which took us to Regent Street and went into “Hamleys”, the biggest toy shop in the world! It was brilliant to be able to handle toys and enjoy the displays by the salesmen. It was time to move on to theatre land where we firstly had dinner and then went on to the Cambridge theatre were we saw the highly rated “Matilda”. It was a great musical and very funny too. The cast were wonderful and we thoroughly enjoyed the show.

 On the last morning, after breakfast and having packed up, we walked along to the “Siemens Crystal” and looked around the exhibition which gave us an insight into conservation. Lunch was taken before saying our farewells and heading home. It really was a great few days and we all had made new friends too.

Center Parcs with Adrian & Pat

Having met up over a delicious lunch, we all set off in the Jolly Bus for our short journey to Centre Parcs.  We checked into our beautiful woodland lodges and set about unpacking our cases.  Once we had finished, we set off to find our chosen restaurant for a lovely evening meal. Tonight it was to be the Foresters Restaurant! After our meal we took a leisurely walk to the Parc village and found ourselves in the sports bar where we had a relaxing drink before the amble back to our lodges.  A lovely way to start our holiday!

 

During our fantastic week away we a few rounds of adventure golf, with some impressive shots made by all!  We went swimming in the excellent Tropical Garden pool on site and went on some wonderful rides!  One was called 'The Tropical Cyclone', which was so much fun that we went on it over and over again!  We had a few games of ten pin bowling - everyone got right into the team spirit and some great strikes were made!  One evening we watched a stunning firework display that lasted for more than 15 minutes!  Everyone loved the many different colours high up in the sky. 

 

On another bright and sunny morning after a hearty home cooked breakfast, some of us went on a bike ride all around Center Parcs site, while the rest of us went for a relaxing walk through the woodland. We watched the wonderful pantomime of 'Cinderella' and even had our pictures taken with some of the cast. Everybody loved this and were in high spirits! 

 

Our last day had come round all too quickly.   We enjoyed our last breakfast together and packed our bags, said our goodbyes and headed for home, stopping off for a lovely pub lunch on the way.  We all agreed that we had had a fantastic holiday with so much to do that we would all like to come back again soon! 

 

Potters Leisure Resort with Phil & Jeanette

 
With Hopton on the horizon, we headed to Norfolk with excitement and anticipation! After we had arrived, we unpacked in our beautiful, spacious rooms and headed down to our first dinner in the wonderful Garden Restaurant. We enjoyed 3 delicious courses and, feeling full and satisfied, headed into the Atlas Theatre to soak up an excellent evening of entertainment. We loved the late night disco and we all got up to have a good boogie!  What a way to see in the holiday!

For breakfast each morning, we had so much to much to choose from!  There was fruit, yoghurts, cereal, toast, porridge, croissants, kippers, eggs in many different ways,  full English, continental, pancakes....the list goes on!  Everybody agreed that they would like to have a game of ten pin bowling so the competition was on!  Well done to everyone as the scores were very impressive. 

 

During our stay we had an exciting game of Family Fortunes which everybody loved and lots of quizzes - Go team JollyDays!  We had a few games of crazy golf - Andrew cored an impressive hole in one! We had lots of fun playing curling, and even entered a competition!  We got extremely creative when we did pottery painting, with some real masterpieces!    We bought bingo tickets  on a few evenings and got ready for the game in the Atlas Theatre.  Some of us enjoyed a relaxing swim in the wonderful pool on site, whilst others went for an amble outside, taking in the bracing sea air.  As always, the entertainment was second to none.  The team were so professional and came to chat and dance with our group.  

 

The last day had come all too quickly!  After our last breakfast, we packed our things and climbed aboard the minibus and chatted about our holiday and what our best bits were!  Everyone said how much they loved it and that they wanted to come back next year.  We had made some good friends, too!  We stopped off for lunch on the way home and then all headed for home!