Bucket list (The Morgan Car Factory).
My dad rang me a few week ago and says to me, "Son, I don't have a bucket list, but if I did, I would like to visit the Morgan car factory", so I said "let's do it". Dad has read the blog, and by chance (and the fact he was looking for something cheap), found a spoons just 1.6 miles down the road. The good news for me is that I get to do another blog entry and my first hotel.
We left on Sunday at 3 for the long(ish) journey. Only a few days ago I drove to Andernach in Germany (for my work), so this should be easy...
From Ashford to Malvern is not a simple trip, my car sat nav (Doris when she is nice, Gretta when she is not), told me that I would experience a delay of +55 mins, what I didn't expect was that I would hit that delay when getting to Maidstone (Just 20 miles into the journey). The traffic stopped and Doris suggested an alternative route. The traffic was stop, start and very frustrating. At the top of the hill a mini-roundabout goes into a single lane. Due to the frustration 2 lanes formed and tried to force themselves into one. My poor Dad nearly had a heart attack as a black van decided that it had right of way (for once I was in the right), and we both tried to occupy the same space. When my door mirror started to make a dent on his van, and Dad looked upset, I decided to back off. The van may have got in front of me and my pride might have a minor dent, but his van has a bloody great dent down the side and my car is unharmed. The journey was pretty crap until we finally got to the M26 (via the very blocked A roads), the rest of the journey was interesting as Gretta decided that a simple motorway route would be no fun and took us for many detours. It rained hard, very hard, but finally we got to the hotel at 7:30.
There is no parking at this hotel (in case you want to visit), Dad forgot to bring a coat, so I dropped him off at the hotel and drove to find parking, after finding one really nearby and finding it does not allow long stay, I then looked for another, and another, and finally found Victoria Road almost half a mile away. I parked up and make the walk in the rain uphill. By the time I got back Dad was a bit worried (I had been a long time), but mainly he was miffed as he had left his phone in my car (and I did not know). I offered to get it, but it was still raining and he didn't seem that bothered.
So we checked in, put our stuff in the room and went to eat. The room itself is really good. We booked a Sunday night twin room (it is strange to share a bedroom with my Dad after so many years). The room was only £39 and worth it. There is tea, coffee, bottled water AND biscuits, so much more than a Premier Inn.
The pub is much like any other spoons, it was quite busy, and I ordered a simple burger for Dad. I fancied a curry but they were out, then I tried Chilli, but no this was off too. The young lady told me that it had been very busy the night before. I asked if something special was on and she told me that she did a chartity book club downstairs, but was pretty sure that was not relevant.
The food arrived, I opted for a Piri Piri chicken. A different young lady tried to give me someone else's dinner (which actually looked better than the one I ordered). The beer was good (I like Doombar), and Dad is generally impressed with the place. I think it might be his first visit to a spoons.
In the room on the television is a repeat of "Have I Got News For You" on the Dave channel. What we were not expecting was a wetherspoon related joke, the joke being that fights are normal at this type of place.
We went to bed. After 49 years I now know where I get my snoring from. Thanks Dad.
In the morning we had a shower, got dressed, and had the Traditional Breakfast x 2. I don't know if it is normal in Worcestershire, but there was a man at the bar in only his dressing gown and a comedy bow tie. I am hoping it was for charity.
We arrived at the Morgan Car factory earlier than planned. Dad had booked the 2:30 tour, but we arrived at 8:30. I hoped that we could change our tickets for the earlier 9:30 tour, and they had no problem with this. This gave us time to look around the museum and watch the video.
The tour itself was presented by Colin, and he took us around the factory. It was a little like watching F1 in that he seemed a bit obsessed by the tyres. He knows a lot about the cars and factory and it was a very good tour, it takes around 2 hours and you are standing all the way. It is a bit noisy in places, but that is to be expected.
With most modern car makes you get a limited set of colour choices, Morgan will give you anything you want, as proven by a revolting lavender colour car that we saw in the production. In the 'wood' section we were given an offcut of wood with a Morgan stamp on it, this is really exciting as it cost nothing!
At the end of the tour we made our way home with only minor traffic problems. Doris got us home early and safely.
I would highly recommend both the hotel and the tour. Outside the hotel there is free on street parking which you can park all day Sunday until 8:30 on a Monday morning, I found this out as we were leaving, not that there were any spaces when we arrived.
As for the blog, this is my first entry where I didn't visit with the wife.
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