When You're the Best of Friends - Glowtini Girls do DLP Jan 2019 - Pre-Travel Day

[Beaker7929]

Finally Sunday 13th January was here! I’d pretty much finished my packing the day before, but as I had to kill time until I left at 4pm that obviously meant unpacking and re-packing a few times before then!

DD was at work during the day so I, my other half and DS took ourselves out for a coffee at our local Next, which also meant I could take back an order I received a few days previously, and pick up a parcel that was waiting. I’m very pleased I did as the parcel I collected contained a gorgeous bright orange jumper that I ended up changing into and wearing that afternoon.

Around 2pm I collected DD from work….trying to fill more time…then I pretty much just sat around reading, drinking tea and clock watching until it was time to pick up Anna. Eventually 4pm arrived and I said my goodbyes, DS was a little tearful which was hard as he’s normally so good with me going away, but finally I was on the road to Anna’s house.

On arriving she was ready at the door with her suitcase, after a bit of suitcase Jenga in the boot (we both have new cases since going last year) we squeezed everything in and hit to road to Ebbsfleet!

As is tradition we stopped off at Clackett Lane for a comfort break and hot drink, Soy Chai Lattes all round on this occasion, this is our drink of choice this winter.

After about 20 minutes we got back into the car and drove the final 20 minutes to Ebbsfleet, now knowing how much closer it is to us than Ashford I wish we’d travelled from here sooner!

We arrived at the Gravesend Central Premier Inn around 6.30pm, parked close to the hotel entrance (note that you should drive around the left-hand side of the Beefeater, called The Woodlands, as the hotel is hidden around the back and it’s a bit of a walk from the front car park to the hotel entrance).

They’re doing some building work at the moment, adding some more rooms, so it looks a bit ugly, but as we arrived so late and left so early the next day we weren’t disturbed by it at all.

We had a smooth check in, as always, and were given rooms next door to each other on the ground floor (phew! Our suitcases were heavy and we weren’t looking forward to lugging them up a flight of stairs!)

As always our rooms were lovely, I love a Premier Inn as you always know what you’re going to get! They’ve recently started refurbing the rooms at this Premier Inn and we were very pleased to see that we got refurbed rooms, yay!

The TV is ENORMOUS!

We arranged for Anna to knock for me at 7pm to head to dinner and I set about unpacking the few essentials I would need that evening and phoned home to let them know I had arrived safely.

7pm soon came around and we headed out to The Woodlands for dinner. We had a table booked for 7.30pm so popped into the bar first to get a bottle of wine to share (from memory it was around £16 for the bottle and really tasty), it was quite busy in the bar with several large parties taking up tables so it took us a little while to get seated, but eventually we were, we poured out 2 glasses and made a toast to our holiday.

Shortly after it was time to go for dinner, a good job as I was starving and the wine was going to my head!

We were seated straight away at a booth table and perused the menus. Last year in Ashford we’d had Mac n Cheese bites with a delicious BBQ dip, as this was the same chain of restaurant we knew these were a must! We ordered a plate of those to share along with some halloumi fries as our starters.

Both were absolutely delicious!

For our mains we both ordered the Fish and Chips, again really tasty!

Obviously this made the bill really easy to split as we’d both ordered the same things. It worked out at just under £17 each, so add to that the £8 each for the bottle of wine and we’d come in just shy of our £25 budget, awesome!

Feeling very full we waddled back down to the Premier Inn, we both quickly changed into our PJ’s and Anna came back to my room for a cup of tea, a Salted Caramel Millionaire Shortbread (yum!) and a last minute check of the plans.

By the time we’d done all of that it was fast approaching 10.30pm, knowing we had a seriously early start the next day we said goodnight and I settled into my large, super comfy Premier Inn bed to try to get at least a few hours sleep before the fun commenced tomorrow!

Next up...Travel Day/Day 1

[duchy]

Ebbsfleet is my nearest Eurostar station and it always surprises me how much it is ignored by so many as it's really well situated for an easy getaway.

[Melanie R]

LOVE a Premier Inn

[Animagus]

We’ve booked the Eurostar from Ebbsfleet for our May trip. We are also staying at the Gravesend Premier Inn the night before so it’s good to know we might get a refurbed room
Thanks for the parking tip.

Looking forward to the rest of your trip report.

[firsttimemouse]

Looking forward to reading along !

[mrsdjh]

A stress free pre-travel day and your Premier Inn rooms look very nice. Looking forward to reading along.

[HappyPanda]

That sounds like a really stress-free travel day. Looking forward to the next installment!

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Eeeek you can sense the excitement! I love a Premier Inn stay the night before a trip... it's where the holiday begins!

Oh and I love the orange jumper!

[Beaker7929]

Originally Posted by Lisa_Lollipop

Eeeek you can sense the excitement! I love a Premier Inn stay the night before a trip... it's where the holiday begins!

Oh and I love the orange jumper!

See more...

Aww, thank you

[kadypants]

Aaahh exciting! I love a good pre-travel day, adds an extra dimension to the trip! Excited to read the rest!