Sunday 2nd August

We all arrived at the hotel in the afternoon, on the first day of our holiday. We unpacked and settled into our rooms. Later, for tea, we enjoyed fish and chips and then relaxed for a little while in the bar with a drink.

Monday 3rd August

Today we started the day with a nice breakfast ready for our day trip to Swanage. Swanage is a lovely seaside town in Dorset. We had lunch in a café and there was time to have an ice cream on the sea front. We had been very lucky with the weather today and travelled on a car ferry, diesel train and steam train! In the evening we enjoyed a pizza followed by a great quiz along with drinks in the bar.

Tuesday 4th August

Today we decided to go into Bournemouth. There are beautiful gardens close to the sea front which we walked through on our way to the beach. After a coffee we visited The Sea life Aquarium on the sea front known as “The Oceanarium”. We saw lots of fish, sharks, penguins and tortoise while we were there. We had a nice lunch in a café during our trip out. Later we went to a pub for our evening meal and then had a ‘movie night’ in our hotel, a chance to munch on some pop corn while we watched The Three Musketeers.

Wednesday 5th August

We visited “Liberty’s Owl, Raptor and Reptile Centre” today. There were lots of birds of prey, reptiles and creepy crawlies including tarantulas and snakes. There was also a bird of prey display to watch it was great to see what the handlers had trained the birds to do. We ate our lunch in the café while we were there, before travelling back. Our ‘take away’ meals were delivered to us this evening. We enjoyed a drink in the bar and were able to play bingo and make points towards a prize at the end of the week.

Thursday 6th August

Today we visited The Tank Museum at Bovington Camp in Dorset. There were so many different types of tanks to see. We had lunch in the café and bought some nice gifts and souvenirs from the shop. In the evening we went to The Toby Inn and we all opted for a roast dinner. There was gammon, turkey and beef to choose from with lots of vegetables. Later, at the hotel, we had a drink in the bar and played bingo and dominoes.

Friday 7th August

We had an interested day visiting The New Forest Wildlife Park where we saw ferrets, mice, wild boar, wolves, otters and owls along with many more animals. It was quite a hot day and some of the animals were trying to take to the shade. We drove back through the beautiful New Forest taking in the countryside. Once back at the hotel we started some of our packing in preparation for tomorrow. Later, for our evening meal we visited The Bear followed by a drink in the hotel bar. It was our last evening so we worked out all the prizes for our quiz week and Jane performed the ceremony where everyone was given a miniature model tank and Peter was the points winner for the week! Well done Peter and he received an extra gift.

Saturday 8th August

It was our last breakfast on the holiday and then it was time to head back home after our wonderful time in Bournemouth.