Tag Archives: Oxford

More Mulled Wine and Markets…

17 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by in Christmas Markets, Events, General, Mini Break, Motor Home, Travelling in the UK, Trips, Uncategorized, Weekend Break

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Part Two of our Cheltenham and Oxford festive outing…

Wednesday 10th December

Thankfully the wild weather that was affecting northern England and Scotland didn’t extend as far south as Gloucestershire and after a bit of a late start we were packed up and ready to say goodbye to Briarfields and set off for Oxford. We called in reception to drop off our electronic tag that operated the security barriers and waved goodbye to our neighbour who was leaving in his campervan after an overnight stay. The Sat-Nav gave a distance of about 37 miles and a time of one hour twenty minutes to complete the journey. We pulled off the site just before eleven o’clock and headed out into the late morning traffic enroute for Oxford Camping & Caravan Club site. Continue reading →

Mulled Wine And Markets…

16 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by in Christmas Markets, Events, General, Mini Break, Travelling in the UK

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One of the great things about owning a caravan or motorhome is that you can go everywhere like a local, you don’t have to be a day trip visitor. In the past we have visited Christmas markets at Lincoln, Erddig and Chirk. This time we wanted to see if we could fit two Christmas Markets in one break. Continue reading →

Getting into the festive spirit…

06 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Christmas Markets, General, Mini Break, Travelling In Europe, Travelling in the UK, Trips, Weekend Break

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What!… It’s only August! 

One of the great things you can do in the run up to Christmas to get you into the swing of things is stay a couple of nights at a site that’s within striking distance of one of the many Christmas Markets held all over the country (and Europe for that matter) Staying local also allows you to sample some of the mulled wine and cider that’s on offer.

Last year we had booked to visit Cheltenham’s famous Christmas Market, but unfortunately due to the builders not removing scaffolding from around the house in time we had to cancel. However to make up for it we decided to do two markets this year! We have booked into Briarfields an independent site just outside Cheltenham with a good bus service right into the centre of the town. From Briarfields we then head back north to Oxford to the Camping & Caravan Club’s site for a few days so we can ‘do’ Oxford’s Christmas Market too!

christmas-marketsIf you fancy the idea of visiting one of the UK’s many Christmas Markets we use this handy website that lists all the dates and opening times… http://www.christmasmarkets.com/UK.html and currently they list over 150 markets in the UK and over 250 markets all over Europe.

If you have never caravanned  ‘out of season’ don’t worry. Caravan’s are great in winter… when it’s nice and toasty inside with some mulled wine… who cares what the weather is doing!

So it may only be August, but find yourselves a Christmas Market, find a site and get booked in and even better invite some caravan or motor home friends to join you.

A very early Merry Christmas.

Simon & Sue

Oxford – Southampton – Oxford

13 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in General, Trips

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I had a shoot to do in Southampton in September, and as Sue could get a few days away from the hospital we decided to go down for a few days. It would also allow us to catch up with some very good friends of ours that live on the Isle of Wight. The shoot was planned for the 24th September, so we thought rather than tow all the way down to Southampton in one go, we would break the journey with an overnight stop at Oxford C & CC’s site, then continue down to Southampton on Friday.

Sue catching up on a bit of light reading...

I searched the C & CC’s website for suitable places to stay…. we were not yet up-to-speed on CL’s & CS’s so wanted to stay somewhere a little larger. Having found a couple of sites, I checked them out on Google Earth and looked at the distance between them and my planned photo shoot. There was nothing close, in the end I Googled “caravan sites, Southampton” and a list of commercial sites appeared on a map… there was one that was perfect. Sunnydale Farm in Netley Abbey. I rang up to check availability… yes they had pitches free…. but as it was the end of Southampton Boat Show, the prices were higher. It still seemed a reasonable deal, £100 for 5 days, so I booked us in. Next, back on to the C & CC website and book us back in at Oxford for one night for the return trip north.

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Hello world! – Pt 3

11 Wednesday Jan 2012

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Our first attempt at packing the caravan up went rather well… we were up early, I’d cooked breakfast again and we had washed up and stowed everything away. During the course of breakfast we had reflected on the first two nights… and what had been a firm decision on the type of caravan we wanted had to be revisited. We definitely wanted a full rear washroom and we definitely wanted a fixed bed! There was a turn about, after looking at fixed beds back at Glossop Caravans a few weeks ago and deciding they were not for us… we had decided a fixed bed was the way forward. We had also revised our list of things we thought we wanted… but this was very flexible at the moment.

It only took us 20 minutes to pack everything away and hitch up… which was surprising, I’d read stories of people spending all morning packing up and hitching up. I had the feeling we were not getting this right somehow. We finally drove round the access road to Kelvedon Hatch at just before 10:30 in the morning and set off for Canterbury.

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