R&R weekend away

For those of you that also read "My Cruise Ramblings", you will know that at the start  of October I was taken poorly and ended up in Hospital, and since then I have been on the road to recovery.

I now felt recovered sufficiently, that the good lady and I could go away for an R&R weekend before my return to work. It was something we had discussed before I was taken poorly, as it was also our 41st Wedding Anniversary on the 18th.

So after some searching on the internet, and thanks to www.laterooms.com we booked a three night break at Milsoms in Dedham.
They are a small chain of hotels in Dedham (and other places) consisting of three premises in Dedham within a short distance from each other. We had been to Maison Talbooth for afternoon tea in the summer (see previous blog).
So after the school run on Friday to pick up our grandson, and deliver him back to our daughter, we set off on the short drive to the hotel.

After unpacking we decided to go down to dinner, even though it was still only 6 pm.
The hotel only has 15 rooms, and is situated well off the beaten track, but the restaurant was extremely busy. You are not able to book a table, its just first come first served, but resident do taken priority.
Its approach was also quite unusual, as there was a pad of paper on each table and you had to write your order down and take it up to the bar to order your food.  I will very briefly move on to Saturday night, as if we thought Friday was busy, well Saturday it was heaving, we managed to grab the last table (again at 6pm) and still people were streaming through the door. It just goes to show what a reputation can do for a business.

So after breakfast on Saturday morning, we made our way over to Flatford Mill ( a place we have been to many times before) for a very pleasant walk along the river.

We have walked at Flatford Mill in all seasons, but this time of the year, it just has dog walkers, and the die hard fans like us.















From there we then went to Wherstead Park (just outside Ipswich) for a Christmas fayre. It did seem rather strange at first as we pulled into the car park, as in a previous life I worked in Ipswich in IT, and Eastern Electricity were based at Wherstead, and were one of my customers.
This was all over 13+ years ago, but the memories soon came flooding back.
After that, it was into Ipswich town centre for some retail therapy, and finally back, exhausted to the hotel.

Sunday morning saw us just taking a stroll around Dedham village, but we still still managed to find a few footpaths we had not walked before.
But then it was time to head back to the hotel to get changed, as we had booked lunch at Le Talbooth, still part of the same group, but very classy.
Lunch was excellent (but not cheap) but I had the best roast beef ever, and the other courses weren't bad either.

And so Monday arrived, and time for us to depart.
Did we enjoy ourselves ? you bet.
Do we recommend the hotel group ? you bet.

So until the next time

bye bye
and back to work for me