Center Parcs in the snow

Time for another Center Parcs trip - being going here for about 25 years, usually in January for two reasons, mainly because there's a lot of family birthdays, and also because its cheap!  Booked a villa with a hottub, steam and sauna suite and a games room, and set off on Monday to meet our 6 friends who were joining us. arrived early and had lunch in Strada, then went off to find the villa. There was a lot of snow!

Whilst the men sorted the cars out, me and Jane went to hire a couple of bikes. The bikes were a bit buried:

Luckily there were some undercover so we didn't have to dig them out. we were told to keep only to cleared paths, and bring the bikes into the villa to thaw the brakes out before using them. The view from the villa was stunning

and we didn't go out for the rest of the day, just unpacked - we hadn't coordinated bringing drinks, and I think we all brought enough for all of us! Good job the games room had a long shelf.

Had a great afternoon and evening playing pool, drinking Prosecco  in the Hot Tub, and having a lovely home made meal.

Woke up on Tuesday to bright sunshine, there had been no wind, so the snow was still on the tees. this was the view from our bedroom window, taken whilst having a lovely coffee in bed.

Our garden had been visited in the night by a largish animal, the paw prints were too big for a fox, so we thought it might be a badger. We decided to go for a walk, round the edge of the forest, everywhere we went we saw beautiful frozen ponds and trees.

Eventually we reached the bird hide

Sat for a while watching the birds feeding, and I loved the trees which are full of little patches of different colours

We showed one of the rangers a photo of the pawprints we'd seen in the morning, and she confirmed that they were from a badger, and that there was a set near our villa. Then we walked back through the forest, which was beautiful.

Had coffee and lunch at The Pancake House overlooking the completely frozen lake, then back to Villa, and straight back into the hot tub!

Then we went bowling, the the bright, neon lit bowling alley. It's fair to say some were better than others, but we had a fun time anyway!

Back to the villa for another home cooked meal, beginning with champagne and canapes. Then we made our own entertainment - lots of pool was played. Stuart mixed cocktails - mainly banana daquiris and white russians. We played games, including doing a couple of pub quizzes and some board games. The hot tub got some more use, and two of us stayed in it till the early hours, hoping to catch sight of the badger, for whom we'd left food out. Needless to say, we didn't see him!