Dear Andrea.
It occurred to me that even though we now live an ocean apart, we are still Two Girls, One Car. Three years later and you and I are both out and about having adventures. And only one of us has a car. LOL (I’m still trying to remember which way to look for traffic when I’m out walking. So no, I don’t plan to drive here any time soon.)
Last weekend The Husband and I went to Stony Stratford in Milton Keynes. Milton Keynes is not an exciting place to visit, but we were going to an all-day gaming event on Saturday and wanted to bookend the day with some relaxation and a little shopping.
As all good adventures start, The Husband turned to Google to look for a place to stay. There are many reasons why he and I are well matched, a childlike humor is one of them.
Why yes, we did stay at the Cock Hotel. This is a photo of a storage shed in the back.
The hotel was very nice. Of course I didn’t take any photos of the outside. That would have been useful. The website has some pictures if you really need to see.
We had reserved a double room. Stumbling in after a few hours on the road it was perfect for us. There was a room large enough for the double bed, a desk and a small wardrobe. A door went into a new looking bathroom. The tub was deep. The room was on the ground floor with double doors that opened up into the courtyard. Directly across the courtyard was their rental space. On a quiet and sunny afternoon, it was lovely.
The only problem popped up at around 11pm. There was a birthday party with a DJ happening in the rental space. In the quiet of the night there was dance music throbbing into our bedroom. Under other circumstances we may have been okay with it, but we had an early morning planned and it was very difficult to sleep. Fortunately, the hotel staff were beautifully accommodating and moved us to another, much quieter room.
Our new room was bigger. It had a sofa, a bigger wardrobe and more floor space. It also had much more modern decor. For instance one wall had duck wallpaper. And as you can see in the mirror’s reflection the other wall had a pop art print of a cow. Nice!
I really loved the duck wallpaper.
Breakfast was included with our stay and we took full advantage of that the two mornings we were there. The buffet was beautiful. The fruit was fresh and there was a selection of pastries, yogurt and juices. There was also a menu of cooked to order dishes.
I’m a bit sad we didn’t get a chance to eat in the pub. The dining room seemed really busy over the weekend and we didn’t make reservations. The pub looked to be standing room only. Friday night when we were out and about, we did stop to look at the dessert menu they had posted in the pub window. As we were reading, a woman standing inside the pub pointed at the lemon meringue sundae listed and gave us a thumbs up. Friendly and slightly silly people are great.
Just across the street from the hotel was a lighting shop. It was closed of course but the lights inside were simply magical. I’d been saying for a while that I could use a bedside lamp and that shop looked like it could offer something cool. We checked the opening hours and were happy to see we could stop in on Sunday.
Saturday after breakfast we set off for our walk to Wolverton, Milton Keynes. It took us about 45 minutes and was beautifully cool but not cold. I stopped to take one photo. As you can see, I found a lost knitting needle on the sidewalk. It was no longer there on our return trip so I hope that means it found its way home.
Here’s a silly map. The green line is our walk. The big red arrow is pointed to Milton Keynes central which you should note is a grid system. There aren’t many towns built on the grid system. The Husband was joking that we were going to to that particular gaming event because Milton Keynes grid system would “help ease my transition to UK life.”
Sunday was sunny and perfect. We wandered a little up the main street mostly widow shopping. I bought the perfect lamp at the little lighting shop and took photos of business names that made me laugh. I mean seriously, Back to the Fuchsia is the best name for a florist ever.
I’d love to see you post about your adventures too!
All my love,
Joanna
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