With only 24 hours in Oxford, we had a lot to squeeze in on our visit to one of the UK’s most popular cities. Only a couple of hours drive from London, Oxford is the perfect place for a short weekend getaway and has so much to offer both visitors and locals alike.
It was a chilly but sunny day when we arrived, the skies bright blue and the ground full of fallen leaves, making the city even more beautiful.
Afternoon tea is one of those quintessentially English things that everyone has to do at least once in their life. Or preferably once every few months if you become addicted to it, much like I have.
London is chock-a-block full of a huge variety of places serving afternoon tea. From a fancy high tea, traditional afternoon tea or a more modern tea with a unique theme; whichever one it is, I love them all. Savoury snacks, warm scones smothered with clotted cream, different flavours of tea from all over the world, and enough sweet nibbles to leave you well and truly satisfied.
With my overly excitable and big kiddish personality, I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that I love a fun children’s film, so when I saw the trailer for the new Paddington movie, of course I was massively thrilled. Alex usually gets dragged along to the cinema, packed full of screaming and giggling children, to watch these sorts of movies with me, but even this was one he actually wanted to see.
So when I came across the Paddington Trail, a fun adventure in London by the NSPCC and Studiocanal to celebrate the release of the film, my excitement tripled! Paddington Bear statues popped up all over the city waiting to be found by curious children and eager adults.
I will admit that up until now I have been a bit of a Scrooge.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Christmas, and not having a proper Christmas last year as we were travelling around India, means I’m looking forward to it a whole lot more than usual this year. But seeing Christmas gifts starting to be sold in shops, hearing Christmas songs on the radio, walking past houses twinkling with lights, and being asked about my plans for Christmas in October and November, well that is just way too far in advance for my liking.
As the name of this blog suggests, I love a fun adventure, so when we were invited to try out the Tree Top Adventure at Go Ape I jumped at the chance – quite literally when it came to the activity!
Our location was Wendover Woods, a lush green forest not far from Oxford where we were heading for a weekend getaway outside London.
We were hoping for one of those unexpectedly warm and sunny days we’re occasionally treated to in autumn but unfortunately for us we woke up to a foggy drizzly morning, the ground already wet from the rain that had clearly poured down through the night.
After a lovely couple of days in Bath and Cheddar Gorge, the last stop on our mini road trip was the Cotswolds where we planned on seeing some of England’s greenest countryside and stopping off at several of its small villages before heading back home. As is typical in England, it rained pretty much the whole time, but this didn’t make the area any less beautiful. In fact, I took so many photos that I just had to share all the prettiness of the Cotswolds with you.
In my quest to see more of my own country and to prove that there are all sorts of adventures to be had right on your own doorstep, our recent visit to Bath gave me a valid excuse to convince Mr Ayla into visiting somewhere else close by, and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty at that.
Not far from Bath, the small town of Cheddar is home to one of the greatest natural wonders in Britain; the 450ft Cheddar Gorge towered over us as we drove our way through its winding roads. Around every bend there was another stunning view with plenty of opportunities for me to shout at Alex to pull the car over for photos and to explore.
I’m ashamed to say that, despite living in London for the whole 26 years of my life, I had never been to afternoon tea before. I find this hard to even believe myself as I have so much love for tea, cake, chocolate, scones, pretty much all food really, that this sort of thing should have been high on my to-do list. When I finally had my first afternoon tea experience earlier this year, I’m pretty happy to say that it exceeded all expectations and I now seem to have become quite addicted. A pretty good addiction to have though wouldn’t you agree?
Bath was the first stop on our little road trip; somewhere we had heard so many good things about but had never had the chance to visit despite only living a couple of hours away.
From the moment we arrived both of us loved the city, its streets lined with Georgian buildings, with pretty courtyards and squares where people sat outside pavement cafes listening to buskers playing music and watching the sun set over the city. Bath is only small so walking around was easy and gave us a chance to stumble across little side streets full of cute tea houses (which there are lots of) and quirky independent shops.
We arrived in the evening and, after checking into our gorgeous hotel, headed straight out to explore the city.
I don’t often write reviews on restaurants but, when I do, it’s because I’ve found somewhere too fabulous not to tell you about!
As we were celebrating our anniversary during our weekend trip to Bath, we decided to book a table at the Italian restaurant Sotto Sotto, as it seemed to be highly recommended as one of the best places to eat. While I may not have been to every restaurant in the city, I truly believe that it is THE best place to eat in Bath, as every single moment of our evening and every single mouthful of food was simply wonderful.
Mama Ayla's Adventures 