Well 2018 has come to an end, it's been an amazing year! Our travels seem like a dream now, but they were brought back to life briefly this weekend when we travelled up to Windsor in Ezzie.
In an effort to reduce the levels of consumption this Christmas, the kids' main present was a night in the Legoland Castle Hotel. The park was closed this weekend, but the hotel is still a great experience, with plenty of lego and lego themed treats to occupy the kids, and a bit more relaxed than I imagine it would be in season.
Since we moved back we've moved into our 'other' house, arranged three new tenancies, and ordered an electric car that will be replacing Ezzie (our Renault grand espace) in January. We will miss her terribly - not only has she ferried us around Europe in comfort, but also with a lot less in the way of problems than we expected (minus the dashboard issue).
As you can see from the pic, the dashboard is still going strong, and we hit our milestone of 111111 miles during our trip to Windsor. Ezzie remains a wonderful, practical and comfortable family car, but the big puff of black smoke every time we put our foot down, and a raft of other minor issues serve to remind us that she won't make it through her mot, and so we took advantage of a generous scrappage discount when ordering the Zoe that will be replacing her.
So this weekend's trip was partly nostalgia, and partly a way of James and Felix yet again squeezing in a bit of biking on the way home, plus a chance to pick up the jump bike Felix has decided to spend some of his wages / Christmas money on.
The Legoland Castle Hotel itself was very nice, the kids get to do a treasure hunt in the room, and having done the same in the main hotel, the rewards are far better quality. We passed on having dinner at the hotel - it's a good buffet selection but quite pricey, and went for pizza nearby instead at Papa John's. We also had some chocolates and maybe a bottle of prosecco back in the room :)
We'd booked in for breakfast a few days before, but hadn't booked a session in the splash pool (in the main hotel) because I wasn't sure everyone wanted to do it. It turned out they did, but there wasn't much left at that point (the day of arrival) so we ended up with the 7.30am slot - not ideal! Still it meant we were up and out early, and gave us the chance to pick up the jump bike for Felix and get to Windhill bike park for lunchtime.
It's been a lovely weekend, and a good way of remembering our travels. We will be very sad to see Ezzie go, but we've kept a small reminder - two of her seats are now being used as extra seating in the living room.
Happy New Year to you all, I hope your dreams come true in 2019!
Published on Sunday 30 December 2018
Comments