Legoland Birthday!

I mentioned in my previous post that we had plans for my birthday during our week in Buckinghamshire. The plan was to go to Legoland. It was only the second time we had been - nineteen years on from our first visit, which I blogged about back in 2006!

We started out with the brand new Lego Adventure Golf. There are four courses to choose from and we opted for the Lego Space course. 

Cathy won! After we finished our course we went and took some photos of the other courses. 

After the golf game we headed into Legoland proper. It being my birthday, Cathy asked at guest services and got me a special badge. The lady at the desk also asked whether I would like my name on the birthday signage, and then how old I was. She didn't blink when Cathy said "Forty nine". I actually wasn't the oldest person celebrating a birthday at Legoland that day - a 60 year old also had their name on the board!

There is now a "hill train" funicular railway to take people down the steep hill at the start of the park. We used it on the way in and were very grateful for it at the end of the day when it took us back up the hill. 

We started in Miniland, looking at the various recreations of landmarks from across the UK and around the world. Caerphilly Castle is still there representing Cymru, but I didn't see many other landmarks from here. Scotland was better represented.

They have put a lot of effort into recreating London - understandable given the proximity. They probably get a lot of visitors from the capital. 

Chunks of London were fresh and new. However, other bits of Miniland were looking a bit sun-faded and weathered. (Looking at that old blog post, I complained about that back in 2006 - some things don't change!) Some areas were a bit disappointing - the American section had a baseball game and a gridiron football game but they hadn't bothered to place them in a stadium - which seemed a missed opportunity. 

We overheard a very funny conversation between an adult and child, where the adult mentioned China and the kid said "Like from Ninjago." The adult replied "And like China, the place." To which the child went "WHAAAAAATT?!?" We think he thought Lego had made up China for the Ninjago range. 

There is, of course, a Ninjago section.

Because we were out of season - just before the Easter holidays - the park wasn't too crowded. We didn't have to queue for many of the rides and later in the day we could just walk straight onto them. We did a mix of roller coasters and big wheel type rides, but the best ride was the Deep Sea Adventure, where our Lego subs went through a large aquarium area complete with real life sharks swimming around. It was probably the high point of the day and was so good we immediately walked around and did it again. 

It's also fun just wandering around the park and seeing some of the large Lego sculptures. There are gazillions of them. 

We had a brief stop in the shop on the way out, where we were very restrained in our purchasing (honest!), and then we headed home.

A week in Bucks

Following on from our trip to Cambridge for the Lipodystrophy UK patients day (as mentioned in my blog about World Lipodystrophy Day), Cathy and I headed for Buckinghamshire for a week's holiday. We stayed in an Air BnB (first time we've done that) in the pretty village of Frieth. 

We chose Buckinghamshire because Shrewsbury were playing Wycombe on my Birthday Eve and I wanted to go to the game. We also had plans in the area for my birthday - but that merits its own blog post!

I'll admit I didn't realise Bucks was quite so rural. Literally a few hundred yards off a motorway or outside one of the towns and we were on winding country lanes surrounded by farms. I was taken aback by the seemingly massive population of red kites. They seemed to be floating and swooping around almost everywhere we went. In Hambleden there were warning signs about them in the dining area outside the Old Post Office. And I thought seagulls were bad...

I didn't get attacked by a red kites, but I did get my feet pecked by some chickens.

We visited some very pretty towns, like Marlow and Henley. High Wycombe was a bit more utilitarian, although we found some decent shops there. Marlow and Henley are both on the Thames with picturesque bridges and lots of bookshops and galleries. 

Another sign that Bucks is clearly quite a wealthy place was the cars. On the edge of one small village there was a Lamborghini dealership and we saw one parked up on the street in Henley. In Marlow, we got back to our car after eating out to find a McLaren road car parked opposite us. 

We visited Turville, which was the setting for the Vicar of Dibley and has also featured in several episodes of Midsomer Murders. On the hill above the village is the windmill that was the location of the Potts's family home in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 

The Birthday Eve football was very one-way. With Wycombe in contention for promotion and Shrewsbury looking doomed to relegation, there could be an entire division between the two teams next season. The game ended 0-0, with a heroic defensive performance from Shrewsbury. Apparently Wycombe had 32 shots on goal, while Shrewsbury only managed two. It must have been very frustrating for the Wycombe fans but it was great fun for us in the away end, cheering every clearance. 

On our final day of the holiday we ventured outside Bucks, to the only wildlife park in Berkshire, Beale Park. We decided to have an 'animal encounter' and met Nev, the gorgeous Brazilian tapir. He's a big softy who likes having tummy rubs. 

It turns out that Nev is actually a fellow Cymro, as he was born at Folly Farm in Wales! Tapirs have natural waterproofing, which meant we ended up with oily fingers after petting Nev.

There were plenty of other animals as well and we also got to ride on a little train. It was a great day out and a lovely way to end our week's holiday.