Living it up in a Manor

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Scott and I enjoyed a sensational weekend at Whatley Manor, a very kind wedding gift from Scott's manager. We took the train from Paddington and jumped in to 'Craig's Cabs' for the 30min journey from Kemble to Malmesbury. The cabbie took us to and from the Manor and was fanastic. Telling us this and that about the area and rather a lot of detail about 'The Christmas Carol' - he was a collector of memorabilia. We drove past Charlie's country gaff and heard a few stories about Princess Anne, plus a visit by the Queen that happened recently. We were in the heart of Royal country and felt like it entering the Manor via a tree lined long drive-way, with automatic opening doors as we approached. I believe we arrived in the oldest beat-up car even seen there. We did spy a porsche, bentley and aston-martin in the carpark! Mind you someone had arrived by helicoper ... nice.

The weekend was filled with fanastic food, dinning in the 2* Michelin resturant on the Saturday evening, and relaxing around the thermal pool, plus partaking in a couple of spa treatments. Our room was huge as we got up-graded to a suite, bedroom, 2 bathrooms, receiption area and lounge - about the same size as the previous 1 bed we use to live in I think. We did manage a wee stroll around the gardens which were lovely, the highlight was the water feature and outdoor seated area. There was a lovely view of 'rolling hills of england' from the garden as the sun was setting, which is getting earlier and earlier at the moment. There was some great art around the place, my favourite was the donkey statues on the court-yard garden, brilliant.

PHOTOS

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