Thursday - Welcome to Wolverhampton, UK

It was hard to tell that I was waking up in Liverpool since the fog at 8:30am was pretty thick. I could make out the buildings directly in front of ours but that was it for awhile. It's fairly warm almost 50 degrees and for winter that's warm.

After another wonderful breakfast at the hotel we had to leave the bustle of the city to head out to the serene countryside. Before leaving I took a picture of mom next to the typical British taxi with it's large passenger area. Mom was holding her little stuff sheep that Jean Marie had got for her. We love the sheep in the British Isles with their little black face and feet so now she can take Timmy, that's the sheep's name, out for pictures as we travel the country.

It was a 2 and half hour drive through the beautifully green fields of the UK's Western Midlands. We saw lots more sheep, cows and horses as well as charming cottages and varied vegetation along the roadsides.

We made it to Wolverhampton, a small town about 11 miles from Birmingham. We came through town on the residential side so it was all housing developments and a few blocks of Indian restaurants, groceries and clothing shops. I'm looking forward to Indian food tonight since I understand some of the best of the cuisine can be found in this country.

We arrived to an old building up a hill and I started to get excited. It was just what I was looking for, a quintessentially British hotel experience. Well the Ramada Park Hall Hotel and Sap is set in five acres of beautiful grounds. (This next section comes from their web site including ht two pictures as I'd forgotten to take my camera out when we went to the spa building just a few feet away from the main building and down and charming stone path.) Formerly the Dudly hotel, it is steeped in history. This beautiful Georgian mansion was the original home of the noble family of Dudley and Ward until 1757. It then became a school in 1761, founded by Bishop Challoner for Catholic schoolboys, before the Earl of Dudley took up residence in 1947. Park Hall finally became a hotel in 1981 when Grigg and Brettell Brewery bought the building.

I love it here and the spa was incredible. It's in a seperate building as I mentioned above and must ahve been a guest house to the main building when it was original built. Mom and I spent a few hours paddling around in the warm pool and the hot jacuzzi. Their steam room and sauna were fantastically hot as well.

The evening includes dinner at Kavi, an Indian restaurant in the hotel and then some relaxation time in the comfortable hotel lounge reading, working on some writing and doing some people watching.