Yorkshire Dales, TV Soap Country with Tony & Pat

  Yorkshire Dales, TV Soap Country  

We were heading to a town called Holmfirth. This town was chosen to record the fabulous TV comedy “Last of the Summer Wine”. We visited the museum where we were reminded of the three main characters of the hugely popular series. We then had lunch in the famous “Sid’s Cafe” where we took our photos with the card board cut out of the very famous Nora Batty.

We went in the village where the British soap opera, Emmerdale was recorded. We had a long walk around the village, seeing a lot of the familiar scenes. Then to top it off, we had lunch at The Woolpack Pub, the actual pub that was used in the series! We took many photos and Kevin got invited to pull a pint behind the bar and he made a fine job of it too. 

At Thorton Hall Country Park we enjoyed looking at all the farm animals. The calves really were so cute! We then met Joe, the very friendly farmer. He took us for a ride on the tractor train all around the farm and the surrounding fields. We then had our photos taken with the entertaining Clowns. They showed us some tricks and played some games with us. 

Today we were going to visit the Wensleydale Cheese factory. When we arrived at the factory we first went and see a demonstration of how various cheeses are made. Then we went into the factory to actually see the massive churns to see the start of the cheese making process. Then it was tasting time! Almost forty different types and all made with the Wensleydale method. 

We went to Bolton Abbey, a 12th century Augustinian monastery known as Bolton Priory. It was great to see the way the ruins had been preserved for us to imagine how it would have looked 700 years ago. We then tried to cross the stream via the stepping stones. 

The village of Goathland is in the heart of North Yorkshire, which doubles as the fictional “Aidensfield” in the series. When we arrived we went straight to the stores where we bought some souvenirs. We also took photos of the police car and a couple of other cars used in the filming. Then we went to the very iconic petrol station and garage. 

Wales - Castles, Coast & Steam Trains with Darren & Lesley

  Wales - Castles, Coast & Steam Trains  

Our first outing was to Kidwelly Castle. Dating back to around 1106 the very impressive castle was once owned by King Henry 1. There are 4 amazing towers that are all totally different in shape. The bread ovens are huge and the basement was probably a prison many years ago. The gatehouse and drawbridge were impressive and the views were incredible. 

We drove to Merthyr Tydfil to the Brecon Mountain Railway.  We set off on board at Pant, on a very old carriage which was pulled along by a vintage steam locomotive. The scenery was breathtaking as we travelled along the Taf Fechan Reservoir and climbed high up into the Torpantau in the Brecon Beacons.

We hired out boats to take along the Brecon Canal. We had great fun and everyone took turns in steering the boat and we all sang a variety of songs including “sailing”! 

We travelled to St Davids in Pembrokeshire where we visited St Davids Cathedral. Established in the 12th Century this Cathedral is truly breathtaking! The Cathedral has a library, Pulpitum, Bishops Throne, High Alter, St Caradocs Shrine, Vestries and a variety of tombs and chapels. It’s enormous with beautiful stained glass windows, huge high ceilings, and an enormous amount of wood and stone character features. 

The National Showcaves Centre was really breathtaking!  The limestone rocks, high ceilings, and colours are amazing. The discovery was made in 1912 by two farmers who were transported back in time millions of years. We then continued exploring, this time in one of the biggest dinosaur parks in the world! Full of over 250 life sized replica dinosaurs that were on this earth over 65 million years ago!

We drove along Carmarthen coast line which was very pretty and surprisingly large. We walked along the seafront and played in the sand and walked out across the sea bed as the tide was a long way out. 

Potters Leisure Resort with Andy & Isobel

   Potters Leisure Resort   

On a glorious sunny day we headed out in the minibus to Great Yarmouth. We took a lovely walk along the seafront and down to the pier. We sat in the sunshine and enjoyed ice cream, drinks and of course hot donuts. 

We all enjoyed a game of Ten Pin Bowling and had some fantastic high scores and a few strikes!

As always the evenings entertainment were fantastic! We all loved to dance with the famous red coat. The amazing Soul show was definitely our favourite. The amazing show 'Around The World In 80 Minutes' was our favourite. The costumes were amazing and we enjoyed songs from Las Vegas, Spain, Germany, Scotland and of course Great Britain! We were all singing along and waving our flags along to the music. 

Potters very own Fayre on The Green. There were traditional fare ground stalls set up; hoopla, tombola, throwing the ball into fishing nets and bowl and throwing bean bags through a hole. The prizes were raffle tickets which would be drawn in a grand raffle at the end. It was a great fun afternoon in the sunshine. 

On another beautiful day we decided to go play mini golf and what fun we had! Everyone did brilliant! 

The group decided they would like to try Archery; a first for some. The instructor explained the safety procedures and then helped each group member with their bow and arrows.  Absolutely brilliant effort by the Jollydays team who showed great skills in hitting the target.

Some of the group requested to go swimming whilst the others sat at the poolside relaxing with a cold drink. We managed quite a good swim before heading into the wonderfully warm and relaxing jacuzzi. 

Darts was a great laugh and everyone tried to hit the bull eye!