Grumpy found out that he would be getting a four day weekend for memorial day and of course that meant we'ed be going on a road trip. Grumpy's not a planner. He's the sort to just pick a random direction and hope for the best. It doesn't occur to the man that we may need tickets and/or to book a room ahead of schedule or else we may not have a place to sleep or be able to see what we want to see. That's just not acceptable when traveling with children! I learned long ago that if I actually wanted to know for sure that we'ed have a place to sleep at night while on a trip with him that I would have to do the booking. I'm lucky this time as he actually gave me a full weeks notice (usually it's very last minute). So I planned routes, booked rooms, bought tickets, and everything else that is required to travel cross country with Princess ZaZa and Grumpy Daddy.
From Friday to Monday we spent an average of 6 hours on the road each day. The first day was purely travel. We got a late start and ended up stuck in some of the worst start and stop traffic I've ever experienced. We were supposed to arrive at our hotel around 4pm but ended up not arriving until well after 6 pm, that's how bad the traffic was. The worst part is the traffic wasn't bad because of accidents or road construction, It was bad because drivers in the UK apparently decided to slow down or completely stop on major roads for no apparent reason.
I must say that when we finally arrived at our hotel I was pleasantly surprised. We stayed at The Battlesteads Hotel. A converted 1700th(ish, can't remember) farm that has been beautifully updated. The rooms were clean, the food was good and the price was affordable, what more can I say?! Not to mention it happens to be only a 10 minute drive to Chesters Roman Fort and Museum, which is part of Hadrian's Wall. Hadrian's wall was one of the big ticket places that was on Grumpy's must see while in the Uk list.
Chesters Roman Fort and Museum is run by English Heritage which is a preservation society which has over 400 historic landmarks under it's wing. I highly recommend becoming a member for their FREE entry to sites under their control (including free parking at most sites) as well as discounted entry to dozen of other sites (for the first year, then entry becomes free as long as you continue your membership), including ones in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Now the membership isn't free. but if you plan on visiting numerous amounts of historic places, such as Hadrian's Wall, Stonehenge, or any number of castles it ends up being a lot cheaper to be a member then to pay for entrance to each site. We paid £88 for a family membership of two adults and up to 12 children (this membership package has since went up to £93).We have only visited 6 or so sites and it has already paid for itself.
The Princess had a lot of fun at the Fort. They gave her a activity card to do rubbings with. She had to search through the ruins for the special rocks that had the rubbing plates attached to them. There were also men dressed as Roman soldiers that had artifacts that she could touch and try on. We then drove to our next hotel which was a Travelodge. It sucked. The only reason we stayed there was because they were one of the only places with rooms available within our price range when I was booking our rooms. It was also the most expensive room that we stayed in, even though it looked like we should have paid half the price we did for it.
The next day was spent at Loch Ness. We saw both the Exhibition Center as well as Urquhart Castle. The castle was very crowded, but was still fun. Sad to say that Nessy was not spotted by either Grumpy or the Princess.
~Knotted
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