Roemin abit

We drove to Rugby and caught the fast train to Euston, then walked to St Pancras. We caught the same train as Mark, Katie and Christina to Brighton.  We walked down the hill to the prom and had mackerel rolls in the sunshine. Went out for an excellent dinner at The Flint House before retiring to the Leonardo Hotel.

  After breakfast at Pierre Bistro, which is attached to the hotel, we checked out and walked down the river to the church where Shakespeare is buried (it was closed) and then back to the visitor centre where had coffee. It was a nice walk around Stratford seeing the sights in the sunshine before we returned home. 

Mark and Katie came for the weekend and we all went to Stratford on Avon for a night away at the Swans Nest. After we had parked the car we walked over the bridge and strolled through the Sunday market where Katie and Rosemary bought a bunch of twisted willow to grow into an ornamental tree.    We browsed menus in Sheep street to decide on a restaurant for dinner and walked back to the hotel to change and have a birthday glass of prosseco in our superior room. We decided on Lambs Restaurant for dinner and enjoyed a top quality meal before retiring.  

  After our final breakfast we headed home via York to see the Christmas market. York is still a good place to visit with the Minster and Shambles but the Christmas market was very disappointing. Apart from being rammed with people it was also full of Christmas tack from China. We didn't waste much time there as the local shops were much more interesting and we finished off the visit with drinks in a cellar bar which Alan had discovered on a previous visit. We picked up some sandwiches and crisps from a Tesco local to eat back to the coach which left late afternoon. A most enjoyable little festive break with Deans.

  The main visit of the trip was a visit to the Beamish Heritage centre but we stopped to view the Angel of the North statue which was close by.  We spent all day wandering around in the different areas using the vintage trams and busses. The whole site was set up for Christmas with Santa and Mrs Claus driving around in his horse drawn coach. It was very interesting to see the 50's area as it brought back so many memories of our childhood homes. The various shops were full of vintage toys, gramophones and vehicles. There was even a cinema and some of the houses were dedicated to trades and professional people like bakers and doctors. We went down to the colliery village area and had a nice photo taked by the school master. Back at the reception area we had a toastie and coffee before the coach took us back to the Holiday Inn. It had been dry all day but we got soaked going back to the coach park.

  We went on a Skills 3 day coach trip with the Dean Family to Durham, Beamish and York. We stayed over night with Kim and Keith as it was an early start to catch the coach in Bulwell. The taxi for 6 did not turn up as arranged by CJ so it was a bit of a panic to get 2 more, but we got to the departure point dead on time. Phew. An uneventfull journey until we got close to Durham when it started to pour with rain. We waited for 20mins in the coach for the rain to stop and proceeded to the Cosy Club that we had spotted on the way.  After a relaxing coffee we walked over the river into the old town centre where we wandered round the indoor market before going up the cobble stone hill to the cathedral.  We looked around the magnificent building, without going for the full tour, then lit candles for recently departed family and friends. On the way back down the hill we stopped for a snack lunch and returned to the coach to travel on to the Holiday Inn at Washington for our 2 n...