The holiday week.

Well, we all made it back in one piece. Most of our little party managed to pick up the odd bruise, or lose a little bit of skin at some point whilst charging around at Center Parcs but on the whole no real damage was done! Either we are all getting better at avoiding the walls on the rapids or we're just getting older and more careful - I'm not sure which.

So, Lynda and I arrived at Sherwood Forest dead on 10:00AM on Monday and met up with Mark, Sheila and their boys, Adam, Charlie and Ben, before heading off to the swimming dome for the rest of the morning and the early part of the afternoon. With three youngsters in the group it was always going to be fun around the pool and water rides - this wasn't meant as a quiet break! Within minutes of finding a corner of the subtropical dome to call our own we were in the water. A quick swim and then it was down the outdoor rapids for the first time - I picked up two bruises and a scraped elbow, my only damage of the week! The rest of the time was spent either in the main pool, on one of the water slides or sitting getting our breath back!

The main pool.

At around 3:30PM we headed off to find our villa for the week. Lynda and I have been to Sherwood Center Parcs many times and have never had a problem finding our way around. This time was different - for me. I picked up the car from the car park and headed off to meet up with everyone else. No problem, I knew just where I was going. On the first lap of the one way system there was no sign of, or to, villa 247! On the second lap I missed it again, third time around and I saw Lynda and Sheila walking towards where I thought the villa should be - follow them! By this time Mark had found 247, parked his car, and started unloading. I'll know this bit of the village for next time.

Villa 247.

Monday night's meal out was at Huckleberry's, the American themed diner. We sure ate our fill in there I can tell you! Burgers, with all the extras, were the main choice for us followed by large amounts of ice-cream, oh, and a few rounds of drinks too - start the week as we meant to go on!

Tuesday saw us back in the pool area again for most of the afternoon, after Adam had spent the morning climbing around in the tree tops on the Adventure Challenge Course. Having seen the height of some of the rope ladders, swings and walkways, rather him than me!

Our evening was then spent in Luciano's the Italian restaurant. For me, this was possibly the best meal of the week. I started with bruschetta bread, covered with mushrooms, then had meatballs with a gorgeous tomato sauce, on penne pasta. For a sweet I chose the Tiramisu. Add to that little lot a very nice red wine and I was rather pleased with the whole evening!

When we are at Center Parcs I like to have just one day when I do very little, spend time just relaxing and generally winding down, Wednesday was that day. After having breakfast everyone went out for a walk around the village and also stopped at the Country Club for a light lunch. I stayed in the villa listening to music and reading a magazine. Later in the afternoon Mark and I spent 3 hours in the Aqua Sana spa.

The spa was one of the most relaxing places I've ever been! There was a choice of steam rooms, a dry sauna, a spa pool, reflexology footbaths, a Japanese Salt Bath - my favourite - as well as "Multi Sensory Showers"! The showers were great, just so long as you chose a warm setting and NOT one of the ice cold ones! I did use the ice flakes to rub over my skin after the sauna though. The one room I would have liked to spend more time in was the meditation room. Here it was almost totally dark with just the smallest amount of light being reflected onto the roof from a small pool of water. The air was full of the scent of lemon, and gentle music played in the background - I had to leave this room before I fell asleep!

On Wednesday evening Lynda and I chose to eat in the Indian restaurant. This was the only night that we ate alone as no one else in our little party liked Indian food. It was also the night that provided the meal to equal the food in the Italian. We shared Chicken dumplings to start with, followed by Chicken Korma, mushrooms in rice and also Peshwari Naan Bread. Not the most challenging of Indian meals but it was superb and, for once, we didn't eat so much that it made us feel as though our stomachs would burst!

We started Thursday with full cooked breakfasts in Chez Pierre, another of the things we always do at least once each time we are at Center Parcs. The diet goes out of the window when we're on holiday! After that it was back to the dome for more fun in the water. It's suprising just how quick the time goes once you get in there, we spent the best part of the day either in the pool, on the water slides or just sat around watching the world go by.

The water jet in the main pool.

Late in the afternoon Mark and Charlie went off to have a go at target archery. Lynda and I watched them for a while before it started to rain, so we set off back to the villa, me for a beer, Lynda to start and get ready for going out in the evening. As this was the last night of the holiday we all ate together, again in Huckleberry's. First stop though was the bar, Lynda needed to have at least one Pina Colada before the end of the week! Me and Mark, we settled for a beer, much better in my opinion.

After about half of her drink the alcohol started to take effect with Lynda! One silly record played in the children's disco and the "big kids" started playing up!

Kids!

Time we headed off in search of food! Again, we ate huge amounts, steaks, burgers, ice cream and more beers. If we ate like this all the time then we'd all need to live at the gym. All too soon it was time to head back to the villa and the comfort of being able to sit and let our food settle a little before bed - helped down by another beer or two of course!

Us? Drunk? No!

Friday, our last day. We got the cars all packed by around 9:00AM and went for breakfast in Chez Pierre again, before going back into the swimming dome one last time. Another five or six hours flew by in no time; more goes down the rapids, more swimming, another ride down the water slide in the overgrown inner tube, with Lynda screaming again!

Then came the bad part of the week, time to head for home. After a quick detour into the sweet shop, we always have to take home a pick n' mix bag, we said our goodbyes to everyone and started our short journey home.

Oh, a couple of great quotes from the week.....

Ben, on seeing the rather artistically placed red sauce on his mums sweet in the Italian resaurant... "Mum, I think the chef's stabbed someone!" then, after running his finger through the sauce and tasting it.. " Yeah, it's blood!" he then went back to the picture he was colouring! Classic stuff!

And Lynda, after her first ride on the water raft ride... "My knees are shaking!!!"

Here's to our next holiday together!