This little mini-break has been booked for a while and I'd almost forgotten about it. Indeed, at the time of booking, I hadn't even realised that it was the bank holiday weekend. Maybe if I had of done, because of concerns about traffic jams, then perhaps I would have chosen another weekend. We went to get on the M1 at junction 14 and when we drove over the bridge we saw that traffic was at a standstill. Not a great start, but the sun was shining, Phil had his earphones plugged in, so we decided to drive the back way which was fine. A little slower and a little longer, but actually, I enjoyed driving through the different villages, it made a nice change from the motorway.
At the time of booking, the plan was to stay 2 nights and then drop by Phil's mum and dad who are only 20 minutes away and take them out for a special Easter Sunday lunch. But all that has had to change and I had to cancel the table, because for the last 3 weeks, Phil's dad has not been very well. It all started before we went away on holiday. Apparently George was mixing up a mix of weed killer for the lawn and somehow (and don't ask me how) it blew up in his face and he inhaled the stuff. You'd think this was no big deal but inhaling the poison made him very poorly indeed. He had a terrible cough which stopped him from sleeping, he lost his appetite and as a result had no energy. We hadn't realised how bad things were until last weekend. Phil's mum phoned to say that she had eventually made him go the doctor who prescribed antibiotics. More trauma followed as he was allergic to the antibiotics and suffered quite a bad reaction. So it was back to the docs for George and another course of different antibiotics. Bet also said that George had a couple of falls and because he hadn't been able to drive, she had been virtually housebound for 3 weeks. I immediately offered to go down to get some shopping, but of course she wasn't having any of it. One thing she did talk about on the phone was coming to live in one of our ground floor flats, so at long last, both she and Phil's dad realise that finally they need some help.
Anyway, because of all of this, we decided yesterday, rather than drive straight to the hotel, we would first go to visit Phil's mum and dad. Made sense really because we had to literally drive straight back their house to get to the hotel. The plan was to mow their lawn for them and do any little jobs in the house that needed to be done. We arrived just after half one only to find that George had already mowed the lawn. Bet said that it had taken him 3 days and made him feel unwell again. Phil's mum is just as bad; I'd cooked a lasagne and taken it down just to save her from cooking for a couple of days but then she goes and invites us for a roast dinner on Sunday. Whatever are we going to do with the pair of them?? I am not sure but the time has come for something to be done, they can't be left alone to their own devices. We reprogrammed their TV, because of the digital switch-over they had lost all their channels. We had tea and homemade cake and after a couple of hours, we said our good byes and drove to the hotel.
We are staying at Stoke Rochord Hall near Grantham in Lincolnshire http://www.stockrochfordhall.co.uk/. Stoke Rochford Hall is impressive; it has a long drive up to the hotel which leads through the park and over the bridge, then you do a right angled turn to the east through the iron gates to the main house itself. We checked in okay, the only problem being that we couldn't get a table for dinner in the restaurant until 8.30pm which was way too late for us. As dinner is included in our deal, well dinner for one night we managed to change it to this evening and have booked for 7pm.
Our room, room 36 is in the Old Stable Courtyard and not in the main house itself. I did tell a little fib in an email and try and get us an upgrade, as I'd heard the mansion rooms in the main house are fair superior to all the other accommodation on site but my luck was out as there are 2 wedding parties staying this weekend. Never mind, always worth a try, if you don't ask, you don't get. We were a little disappointed with our room; it was okay. A double rather than king-size bed, a pokey bathroom with no bath, only a shower and the tiniest TV I've ever seen. Also it was bloody freezing despite being so warm outside.
It was nearly teatime and as we'd only had a light lunch, we were both starving. From trawling through the trip advisor website I'd already read that there was a good restaurant in the nearby village of Skillington called The Cross Swords Inn. As the sun was still shining we decided to walk to the village. It took 15 minutes just to get out of the grounds but we walked to the main gate and turned right. It was really hot and we had no water and after about 40 minutes with no civilisation in sight, I'll admit, I was ready to give up and turn back. But not our Phil though, he was determined to find food not to mention a cold pint of beer!
We got to a main road and then saw a sign for Skillington and turned left. Another 20 minutes and we were in the village. The restaurant that I'd chosen was almost the first building we saw but unfortunately it didn't open until 6pm. Luckily, just around the corner there was another pub which was open, so we got a drink and sat outside on the village green. We finished our drinks and went back to The Cross Swords Inn and were the first customers through the door.
The inn (http://www.thecross-swordsinn.co.uk/) is run and owned by Harold & Linda Wood and what a lovely couple they were. They've had the inn for 20 years, Linda does the front of house and Harold is the chef. The menu was good, not cheap but we didn't care, we were hungry. I went for the rib eye steak and Phil went for the steak pie with veggies and roast potatoes. It was absolutely excellent and we would certainly recommend a visit. We finished our wine and after settling the bill, Linda said that Harold had got the car out and would drive us back to Rochford Hall. The car turned out to be a Jaguar and we didn't leave the premises before taking a look at one of their guest rooms in the courtyard. Harold & Linda have 3 rooms and another nearly finished. The room was delightful, far superior to our room in the old stable courtyard. But how lovely of Harold to take us home, what a kind gesture, and to be honest I didn't really relish the hour's walk home after a bottle of red and a full stomach. Once back to the room it was some telly and then shut eye.
Not certain what the plans for today are. We've already been down to the main house for breakfast and very nice it was too. There was a good quality selection of fresh fruit and yoghurt and an excellent selection of your good old English fare. Phil is currently working on his book on his laptop and we are just letting our breakfast settle and then we're going to try out the hotel's gym and pool. Then who knows, we'll probably head out in the car and explore the local area.
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