Butlins, Fun & Dancing ( Skegness) with Leo & Isobel

Butlins, Fun & Dancing 

Who better to meet than Billy the Butlins Bear! We couldn't wait to say hello to the friendly Redcoats too. 

Wow! What a show! "Turn Back Time" was a fabulous tribute to Cher and ABBA and we were simply blown away by how phenomenal both acts were. They looked and sounded exactly like the famous popstars. We didn’t leave the dance floor and we sang our hearts out to all our favourite songs. 

All the fun of the fair was had as we bumped and crashed into each other on the bumper cars, whizzed around on the waltzer and gracefully rode the elegant carousel. 

We also tried our luck on the 'Hook a Duck' stall. It must have been our lucky day as we all won some fabulous prizes! 

The evening entertainment never disappoints. The perfromers always gave us an energetic show, full of amazing dance routine, glitzy costumes and fabulous singing.

You would always find us at the front of the stage dancing and singing away, late into the night! It was made even more memorable when the Redcoats joined us on the dance floor. 

A brilliant day was spent at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park which is home to Europe's largest collection of Bengal Tigers and a National Parrot Sanctuary with over 1000 parrots and exotic birds residing within it. The Bengal Gardens were huge giving the tigers plenty of room to roam, although they were quite happy basking in the warm sunshine. 

 We bought some pet food and spent some time feeding and talking to the parrots and were surprised to find some of them talking back! Megan was delighted to have one of the African Grey Parrots land on her arm, so it could be fed! We enjoyed seeing the meerkats, tortoises and lemurs and a kookaburra. We continued our walk to see the reindeer and joined the Nature Walk. This beautiful trail was in the most stunning setting and perfect for a sunny afternoon. We were soon joined by the ducks from the huge lake who followed us for part of the walk. Then we met a tapir by the name of Cyril! He came straight over to see the group and enjoyed being made a fuss of. He loved nothing more than a good back scratch; he was such a friendly character. 

It was game on at the bowling alley as we split into two teams where there were some great scores and plenty of strikes. Ian was the winner of team A with a fabulous score of 96 and Simon being the winner of team B with an amazing score of 110! 

We blew away the cobwebs down at the beach, taking in the stunning views of the long, sandy beach. We treated ourselves to a delicious ice cream.... well, we were on holiday!

Drinks and popcorn were at the ready as we took our seats to watch the afternoon performance of The Little Mermaid pantomime. We were engrossed in this fun and magical production. The Pantomime Dame kept the audience entertained with silly jokes and stunts and everyone joined in with booing and hissing the baddie! 

Yorkshire Dales, TV Soap Country with Barbara and Midi

Yorkshire Dales, TV Soap Country

Our first stop on our soap tour was in the pretty village of Esholt which is used as the location to film the popular soap Emmerdale. We had a drink inside the famous Woolpack pub and the two landladies kindly invited us to pull a pint behind the bar. It was a wonderful photo opportunity and a memorable experience. 

We wandered through the picturesque village identifying various buildings featured in the programme and we even popped into the tiny church to admire the beautiful stained glass windows. The church is also where some of the most famous wedding and christenings are filmed. We couldn’t leave without visiting The Old Post Office where we all bought some gifts and souvenirs to take home. 

 Off to Skipton where we had a super surprise …. a cruiser boat trip on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal! The trip lasted thirty minutes and everyone on the canal side waved to us as we sailed past. Equally, the friendly ducks and geese swam alongside our boat as if saying hello; or were they after some food?

How lucky were we staying at Barolin Farm, a glorious manor house. Our bedrooms were palatial with so much room and quite luxurious. We loved exploring the pristinely kept gardens too. 

Another day, another soap tour. We made our way to Holmfirth to see more filming locations of the BBC comedy series Last of the Summer Wine. We visited ‘Sid’s Cafe’ first, probably the most-used and best-known location from this show for a delicious cream tea which everyone hugely enjoyed. Then, we had a tour with our guide, Colin, in his vintage bus where he took us on a tour of Holmfirth and the surrounding areas. Colin was so informative, pointing out the locations from the show and identifying which episodes were filmed where. He also added lots of local history too which was so interesting.

We spent a brilliant day exploring Goathland set in the heart of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park - a beautiful setting for the fictional tv village of Aidensfield in the programme Heartbeat. We drove to Pickering station and had a drink and cake in the tea room before waiting on the platform for our steam train to take us to Goathland. 

We all enjoyed the steam train ride where the carriages were luxurious and our fellow passengers friendly and chatty. We arrived at Goathland station, famous for where they filmed one of the scenes from Harry Potter. It was here, on this platform that Harry was dropped off for his first day at Wizarding School. 

We were astonished to see a Harry Potter lookalike, complete with wand, who was happy to pose for photos with us. 

We then toured the village where we recognised The Aidensfield Arms, Scripps Garage and The Aidensfield Stores. It was so exciting to actually be in the heart of Heartbeat country. It all felt so recognisable and real! Everyone had a delicious Yorkshire cream tea in the Aidensfield tea room

Ice cream was on the agenda and there was only one place for it. We went to the famous Billy Bob’s Ice Cream Parlour for tasty ice creams of every colour and flavour imaginable. It is such an amazing place with lots of American 1950s memorabilia and there was even a full-sized American yellow school bus in the parlour too! 

Our next adventure was at Skipton castle. The castle is one of the most complete and best preserved medieval castles in England and we all found the tour very interesting. There were a lot of stairs that we weaved and climbed our way up and around. 

When we didn't go out for dinner, we loved helping in the kitchen cooking up a feast! We turned up the music and danced around the room to our very own mini disco!

A brilliant day was spent in  Ripon shopping for gifts and souvenirs . The rest of the afternoon was then spent at the Prison and Police Museum. We all found it quite shocking at the way prisoners were treated in the olden days, especially when hungry children were beaten for stealing bread. The police cells seemed so cold and dark and we certainly wouldn’t want to spend a night in there. We all loved posing by the police motorbike and trying on the helmet doing our best policeman impression.