A Magical Mystery Holiday!

Last year, in July, Mum saw that some of the National Trust cottage holidays were quite reasonably priced when booked for less busy times of the year.  So, she booked a little holiday for her and Dad and told him that they were going somewhere nice and that he'd better book some time off work.

She made lots of plans over the next seven months.  She researched the area and made sure she knew the directions to the cottage.  Then closer to the end of February she bought some nice things to eat and nice things to do and made a box of holiday supplies.  Then, yesterday, they packed up The Boy's necessary equipment (ie clean school uniform and his super PC) and shipped them all up to Nan's house.  This was going to be a holiday just for Mum and Dad, doing things that they liked to do and hopefully getting some relaxation done.

Then, today, it was time to go.  Yippeeeeeeeeee!

Dad drove the pre-packed car to Mum's work and she jumped in and straight away told him to head towards Mold.  They bypassed the busy rush hour town centre traffic and continued down into Ruthin.  Not long after Ruthin, it got darker and darker until the hills on the horizon were no longer visible.  It was very dark indeed and Dad still didn't know where they were going.

Luckily, Mum had it well planned out and they made their way to Bala, down the high street and straight out of Bala again, because Bala was not their destination, oh no indeed.  The roads were lovely and quiet and it didn't take them long to nearly reach Dolgellau, but Dolgellau wasn't their destination either.  They turned left onto another very dark road and suddenly Mum went a bit quiet.  She was looking very hard at the road ahead and reached her bag on the back seat and pulled out a torch.  Seven miles down the road, she saw what she was looking for.  A red postbox and a milk churn stand.  Then a sign to say that a turning was ahead.  They were nearly there!

Mum asked Dad to take the turning and to be prepared for some very tricksy driving.  They wound their way down an increasingly narrowing road, over two little bridges, round some more corners, accidentally up someone's drive, over Death Mountain (one of those hills where you absolutely cannot see the road ahead when going over it), down a track and to a wooden gate.  This is where Mum jumped out with her torch.  She opened the gate for Dad and closed it again when he was through and safely onto the....field.  Yes, they drove over a field, into a muddy bit, past a hedge and into another field where the track curved and headed uphill to a building.

The building had no windows and the building didn't have a door.  Dad started wondering where on earth Mum had brought him!  But they passed the outbuilding and Mum jumped out to open another gate.  Once they were through and the gate was closed it was just a short trip up the track before a roof appeared in the headlights and then....the cottage!  Mum and Dad had finally arrived at Fron Dirion, their home for the next five nights.

After fiddling about with the key safe, the door finally opened and the pair felt a blast of warm, cosy cottage air.  Ahhhhh.  They found the light, flicked it on and were greeted by a lovely living room with the woodburning stove laid ready for their arrival, fresh daffodils on the table, tea and coffee and Welsh cakes on a tray, a welcome note from Liz the cottage rep and a fresh pint of milk in the fridge.

A warm Welsh welcome.

Mum's favourite flowers greeted them.

Mum and Dad wandered through to the kitchen which was nice and warm and roomy with plenty of cookerybumpf.  Then they explored up the wonky stairs.  Strange doors, creaky black floorboards and a big, comfortable bed.  Ah yes.  Mum and Dad were going to be very happy here.  Very happy indeed!

After exploring, they unloaded the car and started on dinner.  They were very hungry!  Fortunately, Mum had bought a microwave takeaway meal for two.

Here's Dad exploring the kitchen cupboards and drawers whilst the dinner cooked.

Mum got the holiday box ready for after dinner.

Mmmm, dinner is served.  Thai green curry, Thai red curry, crispy chilli king prawns, vegetable spring rolls, sticky rice and prawn crackers.  Delicious!

Here's Dad, happy to be at the cottage with Mum..but he still didn't know where they were!

After dinner, Dad produced a bottle of Prosecco which he had snaffled away in his bags.  Mum loves Prosecco and Dad knows this.  Mum was very touched.

Prosecco by the fire.


A picture for Nan, as requested.

Then it was time to open the big box.  Dad was itching to find out what was inside!

Lots of chocolately goodies and salty snacks.  Probably the best packing material in the whole wide world.

Some sealed envelopes.  All five had 'Mystery Day Out', a few clues and a postcode written on them.

Wrapped up things with intriguing labels.  They were all laid out above the window seat ready for whenever Dad fancied doing something but didn't know quite what.

Dad really enjoyed opening the box and looking through the things that Mum had prepared.  They chatted and supped until late at night and, even though they were tired from work and travelling, they were very excited to see their hidey hole in the daylight.  It took quite a while for them to get to sleep!

PS Woohooooooooo, this is the 100th blog entry!