The city centre was a lot better than I thought it would be, considering the old beautiful buildings I didn't have high expectations for the shopping. There was however a Primark and a New Look which are my two favourite places along with a lot of other more designer shops. Let's just say I know where I'll be spending my student loans. Kidding. Kidding.
We didn't actually do any shopping, we just took a walk around the city. When we were trying to find the McDonalds (which was actually just round the corner) a lovely man asked us if we needed any help, it was very kind. I can't remember the last time anybody even smiled at me in Birmingham's city centre, unless they are trying to get me to buy some sort of incense stick or give money to their charity.
After a lovely breakfast, you can never beat a sausage and egg mcmuffin! We headed to Marwell zoo, i've been begging Josh to take me to the zoo for ageees and we almost went to Bristol zoo the other weekend but had to cancel due to work issues.
The zoo was nice, the first half was really good and I was captivated by the giraffes, they were great! We also saw penguins and lions and rhinos, I really enjoyed it. The second half was a bit boring as it was mostly birds and stuff but the avairys had two or three birds in.
Marwell house was a beautiful sight, and the weather was nice so we stopped and chilled on the green basking in the sun for a bit. Before we left the zoo Josh bought me a new friend, I named him Ralph.
After the zoo we headed back to the hotel to check in and see what it was like, the hotel was called De Vere Venues New Place and it was really lovely. There was a big manor house that held conferences and weddings i assume and thats where the resturant and the bar (josh's favourite) was aswell. Then the actual rooms were seperate to that building in kind of what I would describe as two story chalets. It was kind of weird and cute as well. Our room had a bath which I was excited about and we basically didn't bother much in the room, we dumped our stuff and went swimming! Luckily for us to get to the pool all we had to do was go two floors down the stairs situated right outside our room and there it was!
We weren't swimming for long before I got tired and we headed back upstairs, showered and I sneaked in a nap! I'm glad I did though, because that evening we went on a sunset walk thats like a self guided tour around the city. We timed it well and just as we had trekked all the hills (and i'm telling you Winchester is full of them) the sun was setting. Since I am a terrible planner the tourist office was closed when we went so Josh had to google the walk on his phone and he was telling me all about as we passed them but I wasn't really listening whoops.
It was really lovely to spend some time together on a nice walk, to see the sun set, to picnic in the Abbey gardens, and to explore a place we had never seen before. We even stopped when we spotted a playground and had a little swing like kids. It was a lovely evening.
We had bought lots of munchies and alcohol from Sainsburys when we got the picnic stuff that we had stashed in the car when we had our walk, and we also picked up some bubble bath! When we finally got back to the hotel I had a lovely bath and snuggles along with some brownies and a glass of wine, the whole day was pretty close to perfect. We also had a tv in our room so we managed to catch 8 out of 10 cats does countdown as well!
We were once again up early Saturday morning, we got a lovely full english breakfast we tea, orange juice and croissants, I ate like a queen! Then we were off to The University of Winchester, it was great to see the place i'd been hoping to study at for so long and the day was so informative and exciting! When we walked from campus to campus, uphill, downhill, uphill, Josh was not a happy bunny and more than once asked if we could just go to the pub and watch the football, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!
We also made a quick stop into Southhampton afterwards as Josh wanted to take a look at the marina but we weren't there for very long.
We mostly stayed in the hotel that evening, we swam a lot, we jaccuzied and we saunaed. It was great. To be honest though i'm not a massive fan of the sauna or the jacuzzi but I loved just messing about in the swimming pool with Josh, making him swim with me on his back and throw me into the water. It was the most carefree I have felt in ages.
We ate at a cute little pub called Samuels Rest which was a small walk from the hotel, I had delicious fish and chips and Josh had ribs. There was so much food we could barely eat it all! It was a nice walk and a nice meal finished with another lovely night in the hotel.
Sadly we left at about ten sunday morning after another amazing hotel breakfast, and headed back to Josh's and watched netflix all day.
I haven't had such an amazing weekend in a long long time. Just to spend so much time with someone who means so much to me, the long drives, the walks and the time we got just to ourselves made the perfect weekend and I'll be gushing about it for ages. Rome is in the horizons though for our anniversiary and I can't wait!
