Last weekend was something of a road trip! We were heading to Dorset for a friend's wedding, and we didn't really need an excuse to turn the trip into a long girls' weekend!
The girls and I bundled ourselves into the car (very) early on Saturday morning, hoping to beat the bank holiday traffic. But despite missing out on our customary weekend lie-in, the traffic still well and truly beat us!
Anyway, we hit the motorway and after a few hours of crawling along with all the other hopeful holidaymakers, we finally reached our exit and started the second part of our journey along all sorts of winding, narrow, bendy roads! Let me just say that some of this part of our drive was a little hairy! But, we distracted ourselves with all the beautiful countryside sites, including a cheeky view of Stonehenge (I was not expecting to come across this- geography was never my strongest subject!- so total win!), stopping for punnets of fresh strawberries and cherries along the way (so mouth-wateringly fresh and delicious!) and of course the customary car sing-a-long!
After what seemed like an age, we finally made it to our hotel, The Royal Chase. Now this wasn't anything too fancy, but we had clean, huge rooms (we got interconnecting ones so we basically had one room for all of us!) and great service! Plus it has a pool and jacuzzi - massive bonus!
After we dropped off our bags, our legs were dying for a nice long stretch, so on went the sneakers and off we went to explore the village of Shaftesbury.
We followed the narrow roads down to the town centre, stopping in lots of lovely boutiques on the way. Our favourite was definitely Boschen - this place was a little treasure trove of beautiful, delicate and racy little pieces of lingerie and swimwear. I don't think I've ever had so much fun in a lingerie shop before! The saleswoman here was excellent, and really knew her stock. In fact, I have to say that everyone we met here was incredibly friendly, no one was in a rush, and never did we get that London look of "why are you talking to me?!" Amazing!
Now here's the really awesome bit that I found out! First tell me, do you think this street looks a little familiar?
If not, don't worry, I just thought this was a particularly beautiful and romantic little road with a phenomenal view when I took this photo. Then I saw this monument nearby and found out the real story!
At the top of this picture-perfect, cobbled, hill road, is this rather large Hovis loaf. Rather unusual I thought! But on closer inspection (and reading the information board!) I realised that I was standing at the top of one of the most famous streets in the British countryside! Gold Hill (or Hovis Hill as is it's nickname!) is really an iconic countryside image. It has been used in countless movies, TV shows, on top of chocolate boxes and cookie wrappers. And it's biggest claim to fame is that it is also the main site of Britain's most loved TV advert of all time: an old Hovis advert directed by Ridley Scott! Pretty impressive eh?!
We carried on walking up and down the hills of Shaftesbury, cooing over all the beautiful cottages with their thatched roofs and well tended gardens (realising just how unfit we are when we reached the top of each hill completely out of breath!). And then we came across this cute little sign! This was like music to our ears! Mojitos on a Saturday night in our hotel, with fresh mint ... great plan!
When we saw this, the windy weather had built up so much that we rushed back for some shelter and realised it was about time we headed to our dinner reservation where we were meeting some more friends that had arrived for the wedding the next day.
We had a reservation at The Old Inn in Holton, a nearby village. When we first arrived we were really excited. The restaurant forms part of a beautiful country pub, and the architecture is stunning. As we opened the door, we were greeted by lots of smiling faces and hellos from the bar staff and punters, and shown along to our table. However, this is when the service really went downhill. And it was such a shame! The inn made such a great first impression, it really let itself down after this.
We were sat at our reserved table for an hour before we managed to place an order! Not for lack of trying on our part; and when we finally managed to flag down the waitress to ask to make our order, we were told that the chef was trying to put us off and wouldn't start making our dinner until after the other tables had been served. Now this was really frustrating as we had made a reservation weeks in advance, and we simply had to watch as tables arrived after us, ate and left before we'd even got our starters! If this had been London we'd definitely have left and eaten somewhere else, but unfortunately with it being a terrible storm outside and none of us knowing the villages well, we were pretty stuck for alternative dinner options. So we waited and waited and waited, finally getting our dinner nearly 2 hours after we'd sat down. And it did look great, and I'm assured by my friends that some of the meat dishes were delicious, but my goats cheese and tomato tartlet was extremely eggy and had such a soggy bottom it really just compounded my disappointment in the evening. Unfortunately, to add to the extremely underwhelming service, any time we asked our waitress for anything, she would sigh and have a look on her face as if we were asking for the world! This really wasn't a pleasant dining experience and the service here seemed so out of character after having had such a wonderful day out so far.
Luckily this was just a small blip during the entire weekend, and everyone else we came across was incredibly kind and helpful to some lost city girls in the countryside! I promise you everything else this weekend was incredible and I'll tell you all about it! Think scones, fresh cream, sunshine and wedding bells! A recipe for perfection, no?!
OUTFIT:
Cardigan: Zara peplum metallic sweater
