8:37am Saturday 2nd January 2010
By Maxine Gordon
Need to unwind after the craziness of Christmas? MAXINE GORDON knows just the place.
IF you think CenterParcs is all about tearing around on bikes, whizzing through tree ropes and splashing for England in the swimming complex, it’s probably not the place you’d choose to recharge your batteries after the festive frenzy. But it doesn’t have to be that way; I had another, totally different, experience of Center Parcs, where relaxation was the order of the day.
We’d plumped for a weekend in Whinfell Forest in Cumbria, a two-hour drive from York (and a straightforward one at that, up the A1, turn left at Scotch Corner then take the A66 to the edge of Penrith).
We’d booked everything on line – even a grocery pack, so when we arrived around 6pm on the Friday we didn’t have to rush to the market for essentials. Although we hired bikes, our woodland lodge was central enough to walk everywhere.
Bearing in mind that minimum effort was the mantra of the weekend, our first ‘activity’ was a woodland carriage ride.
My daughter, Eva, seven, and her friend, Saskia, also seven, were the first to hear the clip-clop of the horse’s hooves. Excitedly, they climbed aboard the carriage and proceeded to ask the driver all about Ben, the heavyweight horse that pulled us for the next 30 minutes through the wintry landscape.
After a quick lunch back at the chalet, we dropped the girls off at the Time Out club for a three-hour afternoon slot. While they did art and decorated biscuits, my husband, Nick, and I headed to the Aqua Sana, CenterParc’s spa.
Dressed in swimwear and fluffy white robes, we began our afternoon of chill by dipping our feet in the effervescent reflexology footbaths, before heading for the seriously hot steam room, where I used a handy hose to splash our feet with ice-cold water, which kept our bodies from overheating and meant we could stand the heat that little bit longer.
We had great fun in the giant spa pool, particularly enjoying the waterfall jets that eased all the knots in our shoulders. And it was thrilling to swim in the outdoor pool, looking up at the forest trees and watching our breath float like candyfloss in the winter cold.
After 90 minutes, we emerged squeaky keen and uber relaxed. We checked out of the spa and found we had just enough time for a drink before picking up the girls.
We took a table at Café Rouge, where Nick ordered a French lager and I had a fruity Belgian beer. Determined to carry on the winding-down momentum, we decided to stay put for tea.
We picked the girls up from the Time Out Club – near Café Rouge – then spent the next hour and a half over our evening meal, managing to do serious damage to a bottle of pinot noir as well as mussels in white wine sauce and confit of duck with dauphinoise potatoes.
After a short stroll home, we ran a bath for the girls, got them to bed, then stretched out on the generous sofas to watch a film.
Next morning – our last day – we finished off the last of our grocery pack with a cooked breakfast of Cumbrian sausages, bacon and black pudding.
The girls had an appointment with the hair-braider, then the Suptropical Swimming Paradise, CenterParc’s pools complex under the iconic see-through dome. The emphasis here is on fun rather than fitness, and we attacked the slides, flumes, lazy river and even the outdoor rooftop pool before drying off for lunch.
To complete our chilled-out weekend, we took the girls on a Woodland Detectives adventure. Starting out from the ranger’s office, we had a guided tour of the forest, with our expert pointing out fascinating facts and secrets (such as where the badgers live).
To finish off, he introduced the girls to some ‘friends’ he had brought along. While they balked at the poisonous toad and giant cockroaches, they were enchanted by the tawny owl. Wearing an arm glove, they carried him on their arm and stroke his feathers.
I couldn’t resist. It was the softest thing I’d ever felt. Incredible – and a memory for us all to treasure.
Find out more about breaks to CenterParcs at centerparcs.co.uk
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