I hear you all cry….and so soon after the last visit to Center Parcs (Eleveden Forest) back in July of this very same year. All the reservations hold good, but then so do all the benefits of the attraction, along with the fact that it’s a great place to meet up with our long standing friends from London; and fair is fair, at least Center Parcs provides the facilities required by the couple with whom we were taking the four night break.
On this occasion, although we stayed at the usual Waterfront Apartments, we went for the hotel style room, which meant we had no cooking facilities – not a problem as we like to eat out every night with our mates anyway. So, a bit of cereal in the room, along with tea and coffee for breakfast and job done. We indulged in the usual activities and I performed moderately well for an old geezer, although Mrs. No Name ran me very close in our ritual round of Adventure Golf – that’s Crazy Golf for any unconstituted human and before we all developed those super-powered intellects whilst at the same time becoming frightened of the meaning of words. I also won the tenpin and backgammon but drew the line at any variation of the “I Go Ape” adventure franchise, although for the sake of accurate reportage, I did take a few snaps of those who were prepared to take on the challenge!!
As I mentioned, we ate out every night and tried the following restaurants – Café Rouge, Las Iguanas, Rajinda Pradesh (the Indian and a first for us) and Bella Italia. For Mrs. No Name and myself, Rajinda Pradesh was, as I rather inanely just said, a first visit and we thought both the ambience and food were very good. It was also great to see it so busy, although we were eating a little earlier than we would normally and for those with small children (and there were a few) it obviously made a great deal of sense to eat out at the beginning of the evening…
Anyway, we once again marvelled at the fortitude and planning exhibited by our friends from London. And on this occasion, we left around 11.00am on the Friday morning rather than stick around and indulge in a few more activities. We think it quite a nice touch that the activities and refreshments are available until midnight on the day you leave. You do have to be out of the accommodation by 10am, but although I appreciate it is also a good business decision as they hope to get hold of a few more customer shekels before we leave, I still concede it all adds to the holiday vibe.
On this occasion, we decided to leave early to prepare for the big, lifechanging reveal that was about to take place on the following Sunday. I’ll hold off and let you guess, but I will acknowledge the sad passing of a beloved and dear friend as part of this momentous event.