Monday: Magic and Models!

 

Monday, with the weather  forecast being a bit iffy, we plumped for some indoor activities.

Our first stop was Davenport's Magic Kingdom.

This is a family run traditional, masters of illusion venue, very entertaining and a great place to spend a few hours.

Teen One enjoyed being levitated!

 

Teen Two tried his hand at the many puzzling puzzles on offer.

Both thoroughly enjoyed the show, as did we.

 

It was time for a bite to eat, and the local Waitrose proved to be a hit with free wifi. We sat at their coffee bar, munching on the sandwiches we had bought and generally catching up on what we had missed!

 

I say "we," but in actual fact I don't have any techy gadgets and the laptop is too bulky to carry around, so I settled down to a crossword in the free magazine.

 

On our way to our holiday venue a few days earlier, we had passed giant Lego models in fields and a sign for "The Big Shop." Some googling came up with SP Models and with both fellas in the family being huge model fans, Teen Two especially, we thought it would be an ideal venue. It even promised a craft and gift section, plus a tearoom, so Teen One and I would be able to do more than just tag along.

On arrival it looked quite promising.

Huge Lego models everywhere...

 

 

but sadly, the Lego section was rather understocked, with not a single item available in Teen Two's favourite "Bionicle"series.

 

This place is vast and I imagine years ago it was THE place to go. It has made such a lot of effort to provide so many wonderful things for children and adults alike, with plenty of activities for children to amuse themselves with, a huge café, out door play area and more.

On a rainy day, such as when we were there, it should have been heaving with relieved parents, but the place was almost empty.

It had an abandoned, unloved feel about the place, so sad. I hope the owners can revive it to the gem it looked like it once was.

 

 

The huge gift section had these amusing china dispays " a bull in a china shop"

 

and this rather fetching china wedding dress!

There were beautiful quality goods for sale, plenty of craft choices too...so why was there not a single customer, or even a sales assistant there. It was a very odd feeling walking round and was not a happy place to be.

Did we hit it on a bad day?

Anyone else been there and seen it in happier times?

 

 

 

After dinner, it was still raining, but that didn't stop us from relaxing in the hot tub...infact, the refreshing rain rather added to the experience!