I know I kept saying that we were going to London, England, but we had to make a couple of stops along the way.
We arrived at Heathrow Airport in London at 11:00 p.m. about a week ago and had to drive directly to Kettering that night. Chad had to go to work the next day so there was no way to postpone it to the next day. Lucky for us, our bodies still thought it was early evening so the two hours it took to get to Kettering went without a hitch. Chad was amazing driving a manual car on the left side of the road, in fact you would never know that he had ever driven any other way. (Lucky for me the first time I had to drive the car, Zoë was the only one in the car as I definitely might have been a little stressed out by it.)
We stayed in a nice hotel in Kettering, in a more business park area. Z and I had to find something to do and move around since the jet lag was a bit rough. The closest thing to walk to from the Kettering Park Hotel and Spa was a Tesco and some other stores that looked to be mostly home improvement stores. There was not much to do, but we didn’t really explore outside of the neighborhood we were in.
We were luckily only in Kettering for one whole day. We moved to The Bedford Swan Hotel in Bedford. The hotel was beautiful with a lovely free breakfast, large and clean rooms, and easy and ample parking (good for this unsure driver definitely). The hotel had me at free breakfast though, the rest was just icing on the cake. Next door to the hotel were the remains of the Bedford Castle, and across the street was the Ouse River. The river area reminded me of a scene from Alice in Wonderland – there were swans swimming up and down the river, quaint walking bridges, green grass spotted with tiny daisies, and weeping willows (my favorite kind of tree). It was beautiful and with the weather being warm and sunny the whole time we were there, we took advantage of the park as much as possible.
Zoë and I mostly hung out close to the hotel and rested. We were both a bit tired and had caught a respiratory flu. But we still had fun.
Have you ever been to England? What was your favorite area or thing to do? Leave a comment and let me know!
Don’t know either of these areas very well at all – Bedford looks nice – a hotel close to a river is always a winner for me!
It was such a nice and quiet place. Perfect really.
I’m from England !! its so nice to see some familiar things. 🙂
I didn’t realize that! I’m so glad you liked them!
I went to England once. Best kind of history class is going there and seeing things for yourself! Those zigzag lines are interesting. Did someone, who was supposed to paint the lines for the road, fall asleep on the job?
I know right?! Haha!
I do love the fact that there is so much history at every turn. I am a huge history buff.
The Bedford Swan Hotel looks awesome! I checked out its link. But, I sadly missed the breakfast description (joking). You must have all been so exhausted. Bedford locale looks much more suitable for you and Z to hang out and recover! We’ve never been to England (yet). Looking forward to the day.
Oh haha, I will have to include my favorite dishes (with descriptions) in my next post!
They are the kind of deck chairs you’re supposed to drink the Pimms from! Did you get hold of the Pimms? 🙂
You seem to have had enough of Kettering pretty quickly but I’ll lay pretty short odds that you’ve had enough of the *word* Kettering. I’ll be trying to drop it into conversation all weekend, just to hear the sound of it.
Sorry, they should be long odds, shouldn’t they? I rearranged the sentence in my head as I was writing and ended up putting that the wrong way around.
They both sound right to me? Haha
Well maybe I should defer to your greater casino experience. The whole betting thing confuses me!
The terms confuse me as well… That’s why I tend to stick with penny slot machines. /)
Wise choice.
It’s a fun word to say. I did try pimms… Well just the store bought can that was mixed with lemonade, I liked it though.
Good enough. Did you try it in the deck chairs?
I didn’t… If only I would have known that that was their purpose! Ack! Ok now I know for next time.
I actually tried the pimms in an awesome Turkish restaurant near our place in Bedford.
Pimms in a Turkish restaurant! There’s something very London about that.
I’m from England too so your pictures only make me feel home-sick LOL! ‘Lovely to see English castles and proper green grass. A glass of cider or Pimms would be lovely with prawn or cheese and pickle sandwiches, with a few rolls on the side, and….. I’m never going to get all that in Germany am I. Can you believe that we only have one (1) English shop in the capital! Sigh!
Only one! That’s really surprising actually.
I loved being able to have afternoon tea every day, it was the highlight of my time there. There are a couple places here that have it, but I haven’t checked them out yet… I am assuming they will pale in comparison, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers. 🙂
Oh, we can have Afternoon Tea at every 5 star hotel, that’s not an issue LOL but you can’t get real English stuff like crisps, custard, and porridge! Only 1 shop sells that, and it shows.
At Xmas, we have a mini Harrods sponsored by a bank (!), and the upmarket department stores sell Xmas pudding but not mince pies as Germans don’t seem to like it LOL! Lots of American stuff available at my local upmarket supermarket though! Apparantly, that sells. 🙂 🙂
I wish I had more American tastes sometimes hahah. 🙂 we did partake in some crisps while we were in England! I should have taken a picture or mailed you some! Lol