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.
I’ve never really been one to explore much of my own country; I tend to prefer jetting off to exotic locations with different cultures and cuisines, with people to meet who live completely different lives to us, and far away from all the responsibilities at home. But after big trips to India and South America over the last year, we decided to spend the bank holiday weekend exploring some of England for a change.
We made a little road trip of it, the beautiful city of Bath being our first stop, where we splashed out on a fancy meal and hotel to celebrate our 7 year wedding anniversary (yes, that makes me feel old!).
I know I talk about animals a lot but there is a reason for that…animals are simply great. There is no doubt about it that every single animal is fascinating in its own way and even though I spend a lot of my spare time with them when I volunteer at London Zoo and with my own pets at home, there is still some sort of magnetic pull wherever I am in the world that has me heading straight for the nearest fluffy nosed creature around.
So when I heard that Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium, the UK’s first cat cafe, opened up in London earlier this year there was no doubt that I had to go.
The last few weeks have been pretty crazy and I haven’t had much time to sleep let alone keep you all updated on my adventures!
Since Belgium, which was only last month but seems like a lot longer ago now, I’ve been pretty much non-stop. And what with jetting off to South America this weekend (woohooooooooo!!!), it would be impossible for me to tell you about it all before I go. You are such an inconvenience South America 😉 So, I’ve managed to condense my latest adventures into this one post to give you an idea of what I’ve been getting up to lately.
I love Spring, when the weather gets warmer, the smell of fresh rain and cut grass drifts through the air and colourful flowers are in abundance. Everyone seems that little bit happier and, in London, you may even get the odd smile from a passerby.
The cherry blossoms that dot the trees are my favourite, bright pink or white, giving a normally dull looking street a burst of colour. On my trip to Edinburgh this weekend, the view from outside the guest house we stayed at was beautiful. Not only could did we have a brilliant view of the Castle right at the end of the street, but the road was also lined with pink cherry blossoms, making it look like a pretty picture from a Scottish fairytale.
I may have just had a long weekend in Belgium, but that didn’t stop me going on a chocolate tour of London the week before. This was purely because I wanted to treat my chocoholic of a mum and not out of my own desire to stuff my face with chocolate. Obviously 😉 My sister also wanted to come along because who can resist a day of eating chocolate?
I’d spoken to Jen, our lovely guide and the creator of Chocolate Ecstasy, beforehand so I already felt like I knew her. As soon as the group had all gathered we were all given a bottle of water to cleanse our palates throughout the day.
Mama Ayla's Adventures 