A Day in the Life… at Center Parcs

For BEDM today we are being encouraged to show you a day in the life. My normal life – get up, go to work, come home, cook and eat dinner, watch some rubbish on the telly and go to bed – is a bit dull really. But this week things are different as I am on holiday. Woo! Holidays are the BEST way to spend time! I took these photographs yesterday to give you an idea of what I get up to when away from home, this time at Center Parcs in Elveden Forest.

Morning

The view from our patio first thing this morning. I lost lots of time drinking tea and watching two hyperactive squirrels play with a beautiful woodland brown bunny rabbit – but of course none of them wanted their photo taken and as soon as I stood up from the sofa they ran away.

I met up with my sister and dad (and nephew) and we went for a walk to see the ducks and fish. The main lake at Center Parcs is always a hub of activity – even before 9am there were lots of people about enjoying the morning sunshine

On the other large lake in the holiday park we watched these male Mallard ducks surround the female Mallard with her five chicks. She must have walked into something as they pecked her and trampled on her chicks before fighting each other.

Nothing is very far away at Center Parcs. Our lodge, Cedar 175, is a five minute (max) cycle ride or 10-15 minute walk from the bike parking by the main lake, adventure playground and Sports Plaza. We returned to our home for the week regularly during the day to grab a drink, rest our legs, or just pick up whatever we need for the next activity.

Afternoon

I started the afternoon (well, technically still morning, but hey ho) with a SUP – stand up paddleboarding – lesson from one of the instructors. My brother-in-law and I joined two other ladies for a beginners lesson, which we found very relaxed and a really nice way to spend an hour. We were lucky with the weather – warm and sunny and not windy. By the end of the lesson I could nearly control the board and can definitely tick off SUP from my bucket list. More about this another time as it warrants it’s own post.

After paddle boarding, a shower (lake water – yuk!), lunch back at our lodge (bacon sandwiches and a Parc Market doughnut with icing and sprinkles), we headed to the Sub Tropical Swimming Paradise (swimming pool to you and I) for some fun in the water. No photos inside the pool, naturally (although I saw lots of people with Go Pros so maybe I should have). The “toilet ride” (this has a proper name but I can’t remember it right now) and rapids always make me smile.

After swimming we had our daily dose of badminton, it’s good fun and gets the muscles working (we are eating a lot of cake while we are here, you understand). There are lots of us here together so we had three courts booked and played some singles and some doubles. I love badminton, I used to be okay at it, now I’m just a bit pants but still enjoy it.

And then back to the lodge on our hired bikes for an hour or so to relax before dinner.

Evening

We headed to the Indian restaurant at Center Parcs – the Rajinda Pradesh – for a meal this evening. While the service was a little chaotic (not helped when I got totally confused about our order at one point, my fault, sorry again to our waitress!), the food was really good and we had a fun evening chatting and eating.

It’s a good job the hire bikes are fitted with lights; would have been an interesting cycle ride back through the forest to our lodge otherwise!

So a fairly active day with lots of food and family time thrown in for good measure.

What did you get up to yesterday?