Our stay at the Spread Eagle Hotel In West Sussex

Jess writes: This weekend, my mum, dad and I stayed for two nights in the gorgeous Spread Eagle Hotel and Spa in Midhurst, West Sussex - part of the South Downs National Park. Please watch the video below for a short round-up of our visit...

[kad_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfmMcXj9gL0" width=400 height=300 ]

We stayed in the Queen's Suite, which is the biggest room in the entire hotel. It was spacious and had a lovely four-poster bed - something I found very exciting. Queen Elizabeth I is said to have stayed in our very room, which gave it a wonderful historical link, but unfortunately no one was able to give us any specific information about when and where!

The suite had two rooms: the main one where mum and dad slept, and a smaller one with a fold-out sofa bed. This was more than comfortable, and probably could have accommodated me and my brother at a push (although I doubt either of us would have been very happy)! The hotel does have rooms for families and is able to construct beds for children in most rooms, although it seems to be suited more for families with one child rather than two.

The room was huge and also had a very nice bathroom with a good shower and stand alone bath. We were all fascinated by the history it contained, and I particularly loved the wig powder closet in the corner which was equipped with three wig stands and a mirror!

In fact, there was history dotted all around the hotel, including 17th century stained glass windows, an eagle statue from the Second World War, old clocks and furniture, a suit of armour and even a proclamation of the beginning of the reign of King Edward VIII (who never actually took the throne).

The back part of the hotel, where the bar is, dates from the 15th century, which is remarkable and we also found old stocks just a minute away from the hotel, as well as many blue plaques about the writer H.G. Wells, who was educated and worked in Midhurst.

The Spread Eagle is also a spa, and mum, dad and I had loads of fun swimming in the pool and relaxing in the jacuzzi. It was lovely and quiet, and we also sampled many different spa products... Mum and dad enjoyed the sauna and steam room, and I loved putting my feet up and reading the paper by the pool.

We ate dinner and breakfast at the hotel, and we were all blown away by how scrumptious everything was. We do not eat meat, but the dinner menu had more than enough to choose from. I had a creamy potato soup, lentil and coriander samosas and was even given crème caramel made without gelatine when I asked.

Everyone in the restaurant was really kind and friendly, and we had a delightful dinner. Breakfast was also wonderful - I loved my waffles and maple syrup, and there was even a pineapple "pina colada" salad.

[caption id="attachment_1138" align="aligncenter" width="940"] The ruins at Cowdray[/caption]

The Spread Eagle is situated right in the middle of the South Downs National Park, meaning that the scenery was stunning. We walked through the lovely high street to a beautiful path, where we stumbled onto the Cowdray Ruins; one of England's most important early visitor houses. It was breath-taking, but it is only open for visits from the end of May until the end of September. I would have loved to take a look inside, as it was visited by Queen Elizabeth I and King Henry VIII.

Mum, dad and I also ate at a great tea-rooms called the Moonlight in a place called Cocking, before taking a walk up the South Downs Way. Although the weather was dismal, it was nice to take a long walk as this is not something we usually do. In better weather it would have been fun to cycle too.

The Spread Eagle is also near an open air museum - Weald and Downland. We visited it and had a really fun time - a piece from mum is on the way.

Overall, the Spread Eagle was a fantastic place to stay. Everyone was friendly, the food was delicious, the spa was lovely and the room was brilliant. Midhurst was a lovely place to visit, and we all had a great time. My only complaint was that the people at reception, although amiable, were not actually that helpful when we wanted to find out information. They did not know much about the history of the hotel, and didn't give us much information when we asked for good places to go walking. However, I'm sure they could easily learn this and apart from this one aspect, everything was perfect. We would all be more than happy to go back.

More from us:

Staying in a castle

Rooms at the Spread Eagle start from £99 B&B (Standard Room) and The Queen’s Suite starts from £299 B&B. We were given a discounted media rate in order to write about it, but all our thoughts and opinions are our own.

We're linking up with Super Busy Mum at the mid week blog hop this week. Scoot over there to read some other lovely bloggers!

 

Fotheringhay, the birthplace of Richard III

[caption id="attachment_1118" align="aligncenter" width="940"] You can see the mound behind us![/caption]

Britain is full of wonderful hidden gems. One of these is Fotheringhay, It's in Northamptonshire, not far from Peterborough, and is a place full of both history and beauty.

Fotheringhay is a gorgeous, very small village which we visited simply because I remembered going there as a child and being fascinated by its history. I've always been interested in the Tudors and this was the place given to Catherine of Aragon by Henry VIII, and where Mary Queen of Scots met her end, being imprisoned, tried and then literally losing her head in the castle's great hall, in 1587.

The castle itself was built over 1000 years ago, in around 1100. A king who has been very much in the news, Richard III, was born there in 1452 and soil from the castle - blessed by the Bishop of Leicester - will be used at his reburial tomorrow. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will also sprinkle a portion of the sample into Richard III’s coffin.

You approach the castle via a footpath and it is now basically a mound, flattened on the top, which you climb up - only the earthworks and a conical motte remain. There is no building, and yet it's still a great place to visit. The climb is fun, the views are gorgeous (you are right beside the river Nene) and it's very peaceful.

[caption id="attachment_1120" align="aligncenter" width="940"] The peaceful Nene Valley in Fotheringhay[/caption]

Fotheringhay also has a beautiful church and an array of lovely stone houses. It also has a delicious restaurant, the Falcon Inn, where we sat down for a spot of lunch. However, it is a tiny village, so it won't take you very long to see what's on offer. Enjoy this taste of history!

We loved being in the country and have linked up with Country Kids this week!



 

If you like history, you may enjoy:

Visiting Selby Abbey, nearly 1000 years of history

Winchester, Wolf Hall and more

Disneyland Paris by Robert

[caption id="attachment_1110" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The parade at Disneyland Paris[/caption]

I went to Disneyland Paris with my scout group and had a great time. The rides and attractions were brilliant but here's the thing: if you want a happy family experience where you meet Mickey Mouse, go to Florida. If you want exciting rides and to get wet go to EuroDisney. Apart from a building where you could meet the most famous Disney character, and the parade, there weren't many things to do with the characters at all, but I still loved it. These are the highlights of my day there:

1. Big Thunder Mountain ( 6+)

If you decide to go on this ride, and you definitely should, go to it early on in the day as the queues can be very long. Big Thunder Mountain was the first ride we went on and the queue was two hours long. Later in the day it became six hours.
This ride is a roller coaster, not too scary and not too calm. The ride was around four minutes long which I thought was brilliant as most rides usually last one minute at the most. There were plenty of small drops, tense moments and some of the ride was in complete darkness. One of the things I thought was cool about this ride was that the main thing that caught your eye in this section of the park was a massive mountain. In the ride your train went all around the mountain and right at the top there were a few seconds when you could see the whole park before you plummeted down. It was the best ride of the day and I would give it 5 stars.

2. The Pirates of The Caribbean Ride (5+)

This ride was an extremely fun one. It took you through the world of pirates and how they find treasure. There were moving models and sound effects but there was a downside... At the beginning there were loads of signs saying you will get very wet, yet I got about a drop of water on me and I was sitting at the front. Apart from that it was a great ride and I would give it three and a half stars.

3. Star Tours (4+ but the youngsters may not understand it very well)

Stars Tours was a fantastic simulation that made you feel like you were actually inside a space ship from the Star Wars films. There were bumps and wobbles, the space craft travelled through the air and the special effects were brilliant. All the talking from the Star Wars characters was in French so I didn't really understand what was going on but the feel of the ride was great and it was the adults' favourite. 4 stars.

4. Alice's Labyrinth (all ages)

Alice's Labyrinth was really fun for both the kids and adults. It was a very tricky maze, yet at some times there was only one route to take. There was the castle of the Queen Of Hearts in the middle of the maze. Me and my partner managed to get out of the labyrinth twice but both times we failed to find the castle, even when accompanied by a leader. The maze had twists and turns as well as things like a mini door. Also there were signs from the Cheshire Cat, some useful and some not. At the end you got to sit down with the the character's things, like wearing the Mad Hatter's Hat. 4 Stars.

5. The Haunted House (5+)

The haunted house was half ride, half walking around. It was creepy but not really scary. One of my favourite bits was at the beginning, when on the walls there were four happy paintings, including a woman picking roses, a couple having a picnic and a woman canoeing on a river. But then the paintings were extended and you could see the woman was picking roses on a graveyard, the couple having a picnic were surrounded by zombies and the woman canoeing was about to fall down a water fall. Another thing I liked was that near the end you looked in a mirror and you could see a monster on top of your car. I would have liked more things to have popped out as all the things were just there for you to look at. 3 Stars.

6. The Parade (all ages)

The parade was brilliant and was one of the only things that made me think of the happy side of Disney. It made me feel like I was four years old again. The floats were fantastic and the costumes were brilliant. There were dancers on roller skates and characters walking, as well as them being on the floats. At one point the Evil Queen from Snow White came up to us, looked at our scouting uniform and gave us the scout salute. 5 stars.

Some of the things we didn't do were:

• The Snow White and the Seven Dwarves roller coaster which was said to be really good


• Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom. You need to be 1.4 M to go on this so we couldn't go on. It had loops, pinwheels and big drops in it so definitely for the older ones.


• Space Mountain which was closed for repairs but looked and sounded amazing.

There was so much more to do like boat rides, a shooting range and even a visit to Robinson Crusoe's tree house. It's a small world, Peter Pan's flight and loads more. It was a fantastic day and you should definitely go.

If you have five minutes and you like our blog, please vote for us in the Bibs (the Brilliance in Blogging Awards) in the travel, and perhaps photo, categories. We would really appreciate it and every vote counts. Just click over here. Thanks so much!

Read more:

Is 11 too old for Disney World?

The Dr Who Experience in Cardiff (by Finn)

[caption id="attachment_1093" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Finn and his older brother with a new friend...[/caption]

This week we have a great guest post from Finn, who is 10, and went with his family to the Dr Who Experience. We are rather jealous that we haven't been there yet...

Over to Finn:

Last week me, my family and my cousins all went on a trip to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales.

On the way there we spotted lots of brown signs with pictures of Daleks leading to the blue and grey building. In the queue we spotted an Ice Man’s costume, lots of different variants of Daleks and Time Lord costumes! At the end of the queue we were given VIP crystals in exchange for our tickets. We would need these later in the experience.

After we were given our VIP crystals we entered the Gallifrey museum where a Gallifreyan tour guide showed us around.,

We saw a box containing lots of cogs which included a time locket that changes Time Lords into humans and we also saw the staff used by a very powerful Time Lord.

After that our tour guide introduced us to a “time screen” which showed us the many faces of The Doctor and the end of the planet Gallifrey! Then it showed the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi, in his TARDIS being attacked by Time spiders and then the Time screen cracked open to reveal the lower floor of the TARDIS. We were all brought into an amazing adventure including Daleks, Weeping Angels and ultimately the Time Spiders. We even got to control the Tardis!

As we reached the end of the experience we came to the Exhibition Hall. All the Doctor’s TARDISES and a few costumes were downstairs, but upstairs contained costumes and items used in the actual show like Sonic Screwdrivers and all the different Doctors' clothes. It contains the world's biggest collection of original Dr Who props and it was my favourite bit.

[caption id="attachment_1094" align="aligncenter" width="480"] In front of a weeping angel[/caption]

There were costumes that most of the companions wore including Clara’s, Amy’s, Rory’s and Rose’s. My mum’s favourite costume was Clara’s Victorian dress. There were different monsters like Cybermen through the ages and a Dalek that you can get inside.

I thought the exhibition was quite like the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D exhibition in New York except that it was bigger and had a lot more costumes and scenes.

It is also similar to the Harry Potter studios tour at Leavesden, but is smaller and  a fraction of the price. It was about £40 for a family of four and I think that overall it was good value.
I give the Dr Who Experience 7/10 and would recommend it for all ages.

Finn and his family took part in the Interactive Experience and visited the Exhibition Hall which are both part of General Admission tickets to the Dr Who Experience.  Special tickets, available at certain times of the year, can also include a walking tour of Dr Who locations around Cardiff and the TARDIS tour.

 

Tickets cost £14 for adults (£16 on the door) and £9.75 for children aged between 5 and 16 (£11.75 on the door). A family ticket is £41 (£49 on the door - so book in advance!)

 

Read about the Harry Potter studio tour and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando

 

The Churchill War Rooms (by Robert)

[caption id="attachment_1081" align="aligncenter" width="940"] The Map Room at the Cabinet War Rooms[/caption]

Talking of Winston Churchill, which we kind of were, via both Bletchley Park and the current Science Museum exhibition, Robert is keen to tell you about the Churchill War Rooms, a fantastic place to visit in central London, which was vital during World War II and contains the only museum dedicated to Churchill himself.

Over to Robert:

"During World War II, Winston Churchill (Britain's Prime Minister) needed a safe place to live, sleep and have meetings. So the government created the Cabinet War Rooms a whole building underground protected by a giant slab of concrete so that no bombs could get to him. I was really excited when I heard that my class and I were going to the place where the government created propaganda posters and discussed the war. Plus we got to go to the Winston Churchill Museum as well. Both activities are joined together to make the Churchill War Rooms, which is in Whitehall, central London.

After you've gone down a long winding staircase you get to a small room where we watched a film about the war and how the place that we were standing on, was used in it. We picked up our Audio guides and got started. You don't have to get Audio Guides as there are boards with facts on and labels by the objects and artifacts but I think you get much more information out of listening to the tours as well as learning things that aren't at the Churchill War Rooms.

We slowly made our way through the Cabinet War Rooms pondering over all the different rooms. Personally I liked the Map room where you could see all the different pins and notes written by every city all over the world. Also there was a few sugar cubes on the table and these had actually been left by a man working at the Cabinet. As sugar was rationed, he must have been about to make tea or coffee when he was called to an urgent business or the alarm went so he had to leave in a hurry.

I also liked seeing all the different people's bedrooms and how they were all so different. The head of the army would have a room with a big comfy bed, padded chairs and nice looking furniture, while the man who brought Churchill his lunch, or the woman who worked by the phone, had a small uncomfortable bed, one hard chair and a plain bare room.

One other particular room I liked was the room just before you go into the Winston Churchill Museum. It had hats to try on, old telephones to use and lots of other fun things to do. At the Churchill War Rooms you go half-way through the Cabinet War Rooms before you enter the Churchill Museum, then go back and carry on the tour through the Cabinet War Rooms. I enjoyed The Winston Churchill Museum the most.

[caption id="attachment_1082" align="aligncenter" width="940"] A general view of the Churchill Museum (pic courtesy of the Imperial War Museum)[/caption]

It had an interactive table where you could find out what historical event to do with the war happened on your birthday. Sadly my birthday was not a very good one - in the whole of the war all that happened on my birthday was that Winston Churchill's friend sadly died. But I'm sure something great happened on your birthday so look out for that table if you go.

Another thing I greatly enjoyed was holding Winston Churchill's teddy bears from when he was younger. I held all three and my favourite was a cute polar bear.

There is so much to do at the Museum from using a real typewriter to dressing up like Winston Churchill. Did you know he had his own version of a Onesie? There is so much to do at the War Rooms that I can't say all the things but I tried to include a lot.

It was a extremely interesting day out and I would recommend it for all ages."

If you want to find out what some other people did in the war at Bletchley Park click on the link.

You can also read Jess's piece on the current exhibition on Churchill's Scientists

Tickets to the Churchill War Rooms cost £8.15 for children and £16.35 for adults. A family ticket for two adults and two children costs £42.95. It's cheaper to go with a school group!