The England tour continued as we travelled to Hill Top Caravan Site near the village of Thrussington just north of Leicester.
What to say about this place that is complimentary? Well there was a hook up and water and a level carpark and an electric gate and somewhere to dump the toilet. We had no contact with the owners and all management was done by signs - no entry to the interesting looking ponds over a small fence - no entry to the house. A sign told us to put our money in a box if no-one saw us. Now perhaps the owners were busy or had the flu, but we did see a bloke on a tractor on the first morning and a load of shooting people were dropped off next to our van just after we arrived, but no-one came to say hello. A tad impersonal ...
It was freezing as well on an exposed hilltop (maybe that accounted for the name?). We walked down to the local village for some exercise and local flavour. There was a general shop that is only open on Friday mornings, and a beauty shop. The pub apparently did not have a kids licence and was just about to close so we walked back to the van ande holed up for the night.
Tuesday dawned milder and we headed into Leicester to check out the Space Museum. It was in an amazing bubble building 3 storeys high and had lots to interest us. The boys were taken by the Dr Who exhibition. I liked all the interactive games especially the one that simulated orbitting planets.
On Wednesday we carried on North just up to Tuxford in Notts. On the way we went to the Newark Air Museum which was interesting to the family plane-spotters. Eric found a sit in flight simulator. There were some good bits on social history from WWII when the area had numerous airfields. One display board had a sequence of letters from a squadron to the mother of an airman who was lost in action. He did eventually turn up - it was not explained how. The Language of the letters was very RAF - wordy and bureaucratic.
Our home for the next 2 days was Orchard Park. The owner was much more friendly than the last lot, showing us round the site and giving us maps of the local area.
More on what we got up to here next time.
