Adults only – sampling southern England COMPLETED About This Page:

[Colexis Mom]

More great pictures from Salisbury! Sorry your pastie was so peppery!

[disney_duke]

Such a cute little town. Bummer about your lunch choice though.

[KMB733]

More great pictures from the Cathedral and from Mompesson House. Sorry your snack wasn't very good.

[Cam22]

I love this picture. Somehow it makes me feel at peace.

The house was nice and it did have a great view, but the cost did seem a bit much.


Lovely little road, but I would have been questioning the GPS. It reminds me of the little country road we wound up on going to a wedding. The GPS thought we had arrived when we reached a field of cows. Now you have liked that, but we knew the wedding wasn't there.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Cam22

I love this picture. Somehow it makes me feel at peace.

Oh boy, if you like that, you are in for a real treat when we get to Lacock later in this report...

The house was nice and it did have a great view, but the cost did seem a bit much.


Lovely little road, but I would have been questioning the GPS. It reminds me of the little country road we wound up on going to a wedding. The GPS thought we had arrived when we reached a field of cows. Now you have liked that, but we knew the wedding wasn't there.

You're right, I would have liked that. A wedding with cows around - now that would've been very cool!

[chezp]

Monday 5 May – part seven: what a beautiful place!

We arrived at Littlecote House a little before 4:00pm, and wow what a sight greeted us when we arrived!



We headed into reception, and I must admit at first glance my worst fears were confirmed. We did seem to be about the youngest people there by at least 20 years. Ok…

We were given our room, which was in the main house, and on the second floor, so we set off to find it, and wow, what a beautiful room it was. I was very impressed with everything – the size of it and the look of it.


The view outside

Our room key, which was very cool!

We headed back to reception to ask where to park the car…



… and then headed off to park it, getting some photos on the way back.



We weren’t in the room for long before we headed out again, seeing some more of the property on the way…



We were heading for the leisure suite, as that’s where you book the rifle shooting and archery. There was a sign saying that, because of their popularity, bookings were limited to one a day. We put our names down, and Mark told me that we’d snagged the last places for tomorrow morning’s rifle shooting. Phew!



We headed outside to have a look at the swimming pool area from outside…



… then I headed back to reception to book a hot stones full body massage. I tell you, it’s just like being on a Disney cruise, being here. You have so many activities listed each day that there’s no danger of getting bored. What with the rifle shooting, the tour of the house we want to do at 1:00pm, then my massage at 3:30pm, it’ll be a packed day tomorrow!

With that, we headed back to the room, as we needed some down time, with such a busy time planned!

We headed down to dinner at around 6:40pm, as they start serving at 6:30pm each night. We didn’t really have a clue what to expect. Essentially, it’s a massive dining room, and I mean massive where everyone has their own table allocated to them.



When we arrived, we were asked if we knew our table number. no… I have no idea how we were supposed to, as I checked all the documents when we got back to the room and it wasn’t on there anywhere. Anyway, we were table number 115 and we were taken to it. We were next door to two women, who we think were friends, Barbara and Majorie from south east London, and we got chatting to them. It was Majorie’s first time at this particular Warner Leisure Break place, but Barbara had been to here many years earlier, and apparently they went together previously to one in Somerset. Ironically, it was the place I thought about going to, before opting for here…

We had a look at the menu. The way it works here is that there’s a carvery, so if you want something off that, you just go up and get it, but if you want one of the chef’s selections, then you order those. You also order appetisers and desserts.

To start off, I tried to go for the mushroom and leek tart, only to be told that was off tonight. Ok, not the greatest start. It might have been nice if our server had told us that when we sat down. We both ended up going for the spring vegetable soup. Mark found the need to further season it when it arrived, but I thought the flavours were fine.



For main course, Mark went for the roast leg of pork, which came from the carvery…



He was a gentleman and waited until mine turned up before he went up to get anything. I went for the baked goat’s cheese in a herb and hazelnut crust, with balsamic onions, although I asked for the apricot couscous to be left off, as that’s one of my allergies. When it turned up, it looked a bit sad without it…



However, it tasted very good. In fact, all of us (Barbara and Marjorie too) agreed the food here was very good. The problem was the service. I may have mentioned that we’d paid upfront for half a bottle of wine each for dinner. We both went for rose, so we got a bottle brought out. Well, literally it was brought out and plonked in an ice bucket by the table… and there it stayed. No-one came to pour it – we were left to do that ourselves, which we were horrified by. The whole thing was bizarre!

On to desserts and I went for the tiramisu, coffee cream, syrup and a chocolate shard. I love tiramisu, so when I saw that on the menu, I didn’t bother looking at anything else. The presentation wasn’t what I was expecting, but again, it tasted very good.



Mark had the warm double chocolate fondant with white chocolate and vanilla custard, and the presentation certainly wasn’t what we expected from that either…



He seems to enjoy it, despite its appearance.

All in all, the food was good, although the rest left a bit to be desired, shall we say? There’s no tipping here for service, as far as we know, so that’s probably why it wasn’t amazing, as they’ve got nothing to work for. And, while it’s a nice idea for them to put all their guests into one place, it’s not exactly going to create a fantastic atmosphere.

PophamRestaurant

Appetiser 8 7½
Entrée 9 9
Dessert 8½ 8½
Service 6½ 6½
Atmosphere 7½ 7

Average score: 7.80

Once we were done eating, we headed back to the room, and watched some TV before hitting the sack.

The weather today was warm and sunny with temperatures in the low 60s.
The best thing today was visiting Salisbury Cathedral.
The worst thing today was how much parking cost in Salisbury!
The funniest thing today was getting the wine plonked down in the ice bucket!
Today we tried going to Salisbury
And the result was it’s a really nice city.
The most magical moment today was driving up to Littlecote House for the first time.

Next: “who made this?”

[xwewhisper]

What a beautiful looking little retreat! I don't handle bad service too well but that food sure did sound and look so delish!

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures of Littlecote House! Beautiful! Sorry the service at dinner was so lacking!

[disney_duke]

Now that is the definition of "resort." Very nice! I did notice all the... umm.. older guests in the dining room!
Dinner wasn't the best, but at least the food was decent.

[nanajoyx2]

DH and I are "old", but often when we travel, we appear to be the "young" ones of the group of folks in attendance. 😄

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Now that is the definition of "resort." Very nice! I did notice all the... umm.. older guests in the dining room!

It was lovely for us - it made us feel so young!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by nanajoyx2

DH and I are "old", but often when we travel, we appear to be the "young" ones of the group of folks in attendance. ��

I refuse to believe you are "old"...

[KMB733]

Great pictures of that little retreat! Sorry about the lacking service at dinner

[Cam22]

Littlecote looks lovely, and your room is well set up. The service at dinner would have been very disappointing.

[chezp]

Tuesday 6 May – part one: “who made this?”

I couldn’t believe it. I was lying in bed, half awake, half asleep, thinking I’d slept well and for a long time, and that it was possibly 7:30am or maybe later. I eventually hauled myself out of bed and checked the time – 6:25am. Ugh! Am I ever going to get a lie-in this week?

I went online for a while, but then the mobile Internet that Mark had purchased decided that we’d used up all our allocated time. We tried to top it up, but the website didn’t want to know.

As the leisure centre was about to open, I decided to head that way, leaving Mark to see if he could get the Internet device topped up. I must admit my heart fell as I walked over there, and saw three people also walking in. So much for it being quiet.

Actually, it wasn’t too bad. I followed a couple into the reception, and managed to be changed and ready before she was. However, the next question was where were the showers? I saw one disabled one, but I didn’t spot the three further on, which is what I needed. Mystery solved!

All showered, I headed into the pool area, and I was actually the first person in there. However, my delight didn’t last long, as I was joined by three others, and really the pool probably couldn’t accommodate many more than that if you’re swimming lengths. I like to do one length of backstroke, followed by one length of breaststroke, so I need an area to myself. Fortunately, no-one else got in while we were there, and I was able to do 20 lengths. I’d usually do more, but my arms were feeling a bit heavy, and I didn’t want to push myself too much.

After I’d done that, I got out and went into the bubbling pool. I was expecting it to be a Jacuzzi type thing, but not at all. It was only about as warm as the pool, which was quite a surprise.

Next I tried out the steam room, and this was very nice. I think one of the Disney ships has a steam room like this. Actually it could be more than one… Anyway, it had little lights in the dark ceiling that look like stars, which was a really nice touch. It was quite hot in there, so I didn’t stay long.

Instead, I headed for the sauna, as I knew that would actually be quite cool, as they’d only just installed it last week, and they apparently can’t have it too hot, while the wood is drying out. It was still a nice temperature, warm enough to enjoy, and if you sat on the top benches, they were nice and hot. A guy came in and we got chatting. It turns out he’s a member here, and I can imagine it being quite a selling point, the fact that you’re guaranteed to have no kids in here. He told me that the steam room was only renovated a couple of months ago. It’s good to see that they’re investing money in this place.

Eventually, I’d had enough and headed back to the changing rooms to shower, wash and dry my hair, then I headed back to the room, feeling much more awake and revived after my swim.

I walked in to find Mark definitely not feeling that way. He’d been trying to top up our Internet since 8:00am, and it was now about 8:25am. He wasn’t doing very well with getting it sorted. I told him I’d head downstairs and go outside to a) cool off and b) see if I could access the Warner wi-fi. Well, I succeeded on count a), but not count b). Honestly, their wi-fi is useless.

Fortunately, by the time I got back to the room, Mark had managed to find someone who actually helped him and he was able to get the top-up done. However, it had taken him 45 minutes!

We headed down for breakfast just after 9:00am, and stopped reception to book ourselves on to the 1:00pm tour of the historic house, which is an extra £3 (c. $5) per person. We were told that we might be on our own, as no-one else had booked for it yet. Suits us if it stays that way!

We figured the early morning rush in the restaurant would now be over, although it was still pretty packed in there…..



Barbara and Majorie were just finishing up their breakfast when we arrived. It’s a bit of a mixture here. Some things you go up and get from the cold and hot bar, other things you order, and it wasn’t really that clear. We have found that they’re not very good at explaining how things work here. They seem to expect you to know, which is pretty tough to do when it’s your first time.

I got some cereal and fruits of the fruit smoothie from the bar to start with, before ordering smoked salmon and scrambled eggs…



They were nice, but of course they were nowhere near as good as the home laid eggs I’d been used to for the last couple of days.

Mark went up and filled up from the hot breakfast bar…



… while I eventually found the yoghurts and, after checking they didn’t have anything in that I’m allergic to (that took a while, as apparently in the kitchen there were conversations along the lines of “who made it?” ), I got a mango and blueberry one, which was very nice, and a passion fruit, strawberry and raspberry one, which wasn’t so good and was nowhere near as sweet as I was expecting.



I also asked our server for some pancakes, only to discover those were on the breakfast bar and made to order for you. That was very good as well.

All in all, again the food was very good, but our server was still barely anywhere to be seen, and quite miserable, although maybe we just caught him wrong, as Barbara and Majorie told us that he’d been better this morning. Sadly, I didn’t experience it.

After we were done with breakfast, we headed out to have a look at the historic house. Sadly here if you want to get from one part of the complex to another, you have to go outside, which I can imagine is a total pain if it’s tipping down with rain.



This is what greets you in Oliver’s Bistro, their signature restaurant. I know it doesn’t look in keeping, but actually it was very nice.



As we were taking photos, we heard a group coming up, and it turned out they were new staff. They were going on the 10:00am historic house tour, and the guy with them told them that the historic house was where King Henry VIII met Jane Seymour, hence the fact that there are rooms in the house called King Henry VIII and Jane Seymour. They certainly sounded as if they were in for an action packed day. After the house tour, they were going on the tour of the Roman villa on the grounds, then doing archery, all before lunch!

Next: my first time firing a gun!