I'm Back!

I got back from Centerparcs yesterday, and I had such a great time! It would have been a little nicer if the weather was better; it was really cold right from the first day, and we (my mum, sister and I) didn't really pack for cold weather! I think we were hoping it would be warm. Still, it was a lovely holiday regardless, and there was plenty to do to warm us up. It was also nice to get to our villa on an evening, put the heating on and have a hot chocolate, with lots of cream and marshmallows!
We spent the majority of our time in the Subtropical Swimming Paradise, going down the slides and the river rapids, and trying not to drown when the waves came on; they were huge!
We hired bikes, which was a lot of fun since none of us had ridden one in years! It was very hard going up all of the many hills and slopes of Centerparcs on them, but much easier whizzing back down them, I had forgotten how much fun bike riding could be.

This guy kept coming back for more, banging his beak against the glass!

We saw a lot of wildlife; there were squirrels everywhere! They were fearless, they ignored all of the people and just focused on finding food. There were also a lot of ducks, which we bought a lot of bread for; they wandered right up to the patio door of our villa every day, expecting their dinner. And then there was the bird feeding hide, where you sit in a little cabin and watch the birds out of little windows. This was really interesting, as a lot of different types of birds used to hide, as well as squirrels, ducks and rabbits. We even saw a Sparrowhawk, which sat on a branch just watching and waiting for about 10 minutes, then swooped in and tried to catch one of the little birds.

The squirrels loved the nuts we left on the table for them

One of the best parts of the visit was the Pancake House, of course! We went there three times, twice for savoury pancakes (I had ham and pineapple, yum!) and once for sweet ones. There were also a lot of trips to Starbucks, as there are three on the site and I can never resist getting a Caramel Creme Frappuccino!
We went to play badminton as well, which I am better at than I had thought! My mum and I are thinking of going more often from now on, as it was a lot of fun. We also need to learn how to score it properly; we have no idea who won any of the games.

The biggest owl; he was so heavy!

Another great experience we had was an activity called 'An Encounter with Owls'. We all really wanted to do this, because we love owls but have never seen one up close. During this experience we each got to hold 5 different owls; it was an amazing experience! It was really interesting to learn different things about each of the owls, and their names; there was a tiny one, called Terminator, and a huge one named Cuddles!

And this little guy is the smallest species of owl in the world. So tiny, I wanted to bring him home with me!

I had a wonderful holiday, but I'm glad to be back, mainly because I start at university on Monday! That's if I have no problems enrolling, anyway. I'm excited to be going back into education, as I've just had a year out and although the time being able to do what I wanted was lovely, it will be nice to have a focus again.