I spent the August bank holiday relaxing in the Forest of Dean with my boyfriend. It was a lovely weekend and we got up to a lot over our short stay.
Thursday
After work, we packed up the car and left London, making our way towards Sling. There was a lot of traffic leaving London, which was to be expected and slowly cleared. I was driving so I sang to musicals the entire way and it only became dark near the end of the journey, which was ideal as I'm not a fan of driving down country lanes in the dark. At 9:30pm, we reached our small bungalow in the Forest of Dean, where we could have a base from which to explore and quickly whacked something in the oven for dinner.
Friday
I had done a small food shop during lunch on Thursday so we had a decent supply of meals and snacks to tide us over the weekend. I decided to make breakfast before starting work, and chose to finally jump on the bandwagon of fried pesto eggs, alongside a baguette and coffee, which was delicious. We then walked around Sling to acquaint ourselves with the village since neither of us had been previously, and my initial impression was that there was a lot of excrement on the roads, which was explained by the roaming sheep we saw, and I loved the old phone box that had since been converted into a free library. We got very lucky with the weather and spotted various animals in the nearby fields, including cows and horses. One thing that surprised me about the village however was the lack of cafés or even corner shops.
We then returned home in time for work, although luckily work was quiet for both of use so we could chat and enjoy a slow morning. For lunch, we decided to try something a bit different, as although I am a lover of afternoon teas, my boyfriend had never actually tried one! Therefore, we had an afternoon tea at the Tudor Farmhouse nearby (although reaching it was an experience in itself as despite it only being a 20 minute walk away, it was along country roads as with no pavements so it was a relief when we finally arrived). The weather was perfect so we ate our lunch al fresco and were able to really enjoy the full experience. As usual, I left feeling stuffed but satisfied.
We had initially planned to go on a walk through the Forest of Dean the following morning, however given the beautiful weather (and rainy forecasts for the following day), we couldn't resist a nice walk, and so after working in the afternoon, we headed over to complete the Sculpture Trail in the Forest of Dean. One thing to know about me and my boyfriend is that we love a walkies and so this was delightful for us. The sculptures were very hit or miss, but some were cool and it was nice to have a little challenge of finding all the sculptures during our walk. The trail was very clearly sign-posted and was mostly flat, with shorter route options depending on your time available, so I'd highly recommend it!
Following our walk, we stopped by a cider manufacturer on Clay Road, which we'd passed on our morning walk and had made it back just before closing time. We knocked on the door, to no avail, and just as we were about to give up, a man answered. We'd intended to buy only a couple of bottles and be on our way, but the man was very hospitable and welcoming, offering us to try the cider first, showing us around the orchard and cider press, and teaching us a lot about the process, so we left with double what we'd originally planned. He also had a proper West Country accent, which brought me back to my Bristol days and my boyfriend struggled to decipher.
We spent our evening in the Airbnb, enjoying pizza and cider and watching Worst Roommate Ever (which we quickly became obsessed with and became a common theme throughout this trip, despite it creeping me out big time).
Saturday
After a lie in, we had scrambled eggs on toast and then got ready for the day. Unfortunately, it was raining the majority of the morning, but luckily we came prepared so played 221B Baker Street, a board game that we both love, and watched another episode of Worst Roommate Ever whilst snacking on some homemade cookies I'd brought with me and some cotton candy grapes (another favourite of ours).
Eventually, the sun made an appearance so after a home-cooked lunch, we headed to Puzzlewood for an afternoon walk. Puzzlewood comprises covered woodlands which have a magical element to them and is a popular filming location, including for Star Wars, Doctor Who, and The Secret Garden. As it had rained earlier, it was very muddy but still extremely cool and surreal. The scenery was spectacular, although there weren't set trails so we found ourselves retracing routes we'd already been down, which wasn't ideal. As we were leaving, the sun had reappeared in all its glory so we bought some local ice cream to enjoy on our way back home.
As we walked down the main road to our Airbnb, we noticed an event occurring in the local bandstand so headed over, where we enjoyed a free concert from a brass band on the grass with our ice creams, which was very wholesome, especially as many of the locals were old couples who had brought their camping chairs and this seemed to be a fairly regular occurrence. Not long after, we spotted a garage sale so popped in to say hello and see what was on offer as I'd never been to a proper one before.
We eventually arrived home, where we enjoyed another episode of our addictive series, and then we headed out to a local pub for dinner. Unfortunately, we hadn't booked so were turned away, and tried another, where the same thing happened. I was hungry by this point so we resorted to calling various pubs and luck was not on our side. We eventually found one with availability at 8:30pm, but instead decided to drive to a nearby supermarket and buy pub food to make ourselves, which is exactly what we did. En route we spotted an abundance of sheep roaming the sreets, which made us giggle, and explained why each house had a cattle grid leading up to the property. We played some drinking games and continued to watch our TV series until we eventually fell asleep.
Sunday
Our plan for Sunday was the main reason we'd headed into this neck of the woods - I wanted to show my boyfriend my university city: Bristol. We headed over first thing and I started the tour in Clifton with the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge. We slowly headed towards the harbourside, passing through Whiteladies Road, High Kingsdown, the Triangle and the City Centre, so that I could point out various locations of interest throughout my time at uni. We then had a Sunday roast for lunch at Harbour House, which was divine, followed by a Ben's cookie for dessert (my favourite).
We then did something we'd been looking forward to for a while: solving a mystery. For Valentine's Day, my boyfriend had surprised me with a murder mystery guide in the West End, which we'd both enjoyed greatly and had been very excited to complete the Bristol one. We had to figure out who had caused a hot air balloon to crash, which was in theme with Bristol, and the storyline takes you across the harbourside in search of clues and even includes pub stops! We had a lot of fun and I'd strongly recommend this if you enjoy solving puzzles; it was a unique way to explore the city and we ran into a couple of other groups also solving the mystery.
After sharing many of my uni memories with my boyfriend and showing him around the city, we drove back to Coleford for tapas, before heading home for tea and a sweet treet, followed of course, by Worst Roommate Ever and drinks. It was a lovely day and I couldn't wait for what the following morning would bring.
Monday
We'd booked to play tennis in the Welsh town of Llangodo from 9-10am, however we awoke earlier than expected and decided that instead of hanging about to play tennis, we'd instead check out of the Airbnb earlier and go on a morning walk, before beating the traffic back to London.
We initially aimed to check out Cannop Ponds, however our map sent us to a sketchy road so instead we headed to Mallards Pike. This was a beautiful area with trails and ponds, and we had gotten very lucky with the weather so it was a lovely morning walk. We then drove back to London, listening to the entire Hamilton soundtrack (as I'm a big fan and my boyfriend was going to see the play later that week) and before we knew it we were back in the Big Smoke! It was the perfect bank holiday getaway and I couldn't have wished for a better time.
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