Day 11 - Weston Super Mare

Well the weather was sunny (ish) so we headed out to Wookey Caves.  After much toing and froing about how to get there we decided just to catch the bus to Wells and work it out when we got there!

 

I am sooo glad we decided not to hire a car at this stage as we had originally planned.  You hear stories of the country lanes but until you see them it is hard to believe the houses built right at the road side and the roads are so narrow.  At one stage you could have literally put your hand out either bus window and knocked on a front door or window. 

 

 

Anyway we got to Wells and jumped in a taxi to Wookey Hole. 

For those who have been asking - Wookey Hole is just outside of Wookey village near the town of Wells in Somerset. 

I think what the owners of Wookey Hole did was sit down and brainstorm to get some ideas of what to do for a tourist attraction and then they just ran with every single idea.

 

Our day started with a tour of Wookey Caves and learnt the history of "The witch of Wookey".  An old hermit lady who lived in the caves and terrrorised the locals.  We went through 6 of the 25 chambers (some are only accessible through the use of diving gear!)

 Then we came out into the next section - the fairy garden and gnome village.

 After that we "met" King Kong.

 From there the next step was dinosaur valley with many different dinosaur models on display (I think we counted about 18)

 From there we went through a circus school (which was only open on weekends ) and a history of circus in England.

Then we went into an old paper mill where they still make paper by hand.

Next was an old penny arcade with  so many old games and side show attractions that still required the old pennies to run them. 

Then we entered pirate land!  The kids saw the Pirate Blasta and decided to have a go.  Unfortunately for Tasha she didn't realise that pirates fight back!  Kyle very quickly found the trigger points for Tash to get squirted and hit them with great accuracy... much to everyone's amusement (except maybe Tasha's!)

 From there we headed back inside to a section of "kids" rides.  Yeah well we are all just big kids at heart!

 From then it was family war in the ball pit.  High powered air guns shooting foam balls at each other!  Kept us amused for ages.  It started with kids against parents and then kind of became a bit of a free for all!  Culminating in the full bucket being emptied over Tasha's head to finish the game.

 Hmmmm next step was the funhouse mirrors where we laughed at some of the weird shapes our reflections took on (yes and some we moved from quickly, others we wished we could keep!)

 Through the mirror maze.... the boys find these quite simple as they watch the floor for the mirror joins where as the girls tend to just blunder our way through bouncing off mirrors as we go!

I am sure there is much more at Wookey Hole that I have forgotten to mention.... as I said I think they went with every idea they came up with.... but all in all a fun day was had by all.

Then we had to get back on the bus for the trip back to Weston Super Mare via those narrow roads.  We finally made it back to our guest house at about 7:30 and then headed out for dinner.  Not such an easy thing to do.  By the time we walked down town it was about 8:10.  Apparently everyone eats early as most restaurants were closed at 8:00pm!  We wandered around town and finally ended up finding a McDonalds which was open to 9:00.   So we ducked in for Macca's for tea before walking back to the guest house to start packing.

We leave Weston Super Mare tomorrow - I have loved my time here following in Mum's footsteps and meeting up with cousin Margaret.  From here we head to Plymouth and will catch up with Patty, a girl I spent so much of my early teenage years with but who I haven't seen for over 20 years.  It will be wonderful to see her and I am looking forward to it so much.... oh and we have a surprise planned for Tasha in the next couple of days.   Ssssshhhhhhh.

Todays tally:
Steps 13996
Days till Tasha's surprise: 2
Houses I saw today I wanted to buy:  about 10