272 Friday 13th-Sunday 15th June 2025 Alton Towers weekend

 It  won't surprise you to know  this  weekend  was  for Simon, a long-promised treat. We  booked  a  hotel in  Longton, right in the town centre. We  set  off on Friday evening having  KFC at  Knutsford on the way. The  hotel was a bit  basic but clean enough.

In  the  morning, we went out early. looking for a Wetherspoons for  breakfast. We  got directions to it from two different  people before confirmation that  there wasn't one at all. We  ended up at a cafe in the market place which was quite frankly rubbish. The whole town centre is a mess. After getting back to the hotel we drove to Alton Towers  arriving  there around ten o clock. We took the monorail from the  car park to the ticket office.

I might  get the exact order of  events wrong  here but I think Simon first went on the Wicker Man ride  while  I  waited ( a long time ).

Simon then went on the Galactica ride.

We  then went on The Curse Of Alton Manor together, a superior ghost train ride which I enjoyed.

Simon  went on Nemesis Reborn next. I tried to go on Skyride while he was queuing  but they'd temporarily taken it down. We then had lunch at a stall. We'd been warned about the food beforehand  but  it  was OK.

Simon then persuaded me to ride with him on the Runaway Mine Train saying it wasn't too scary. I  shut  my  eyes for  the  worst  parts but it was still an  uncomfortable experience for me. We  then had a bit of a walk to the Spinball Whizzer ride.

Simon went on that , then the Smiler, then Oblivion in "quick" succession. 

We then had a walk past the mansion to the  hidden ride, Thirteen . Simon disappeared from view and I waited for a dixconcertingly long time particularly after two very attractive girls who'd gone in after him emerged first though I suppose they might have abandoned the queue. After that we took the Sky Ride but got a bit confused and ended up at the opposite end from where we wanted to be. We  had an ice cream then we both went on the  Congo River Rapids ride which was very enjoyable despite a long wait.

Simon then went on The Toxicator which looked the scariest of the lot to me.

He had a second ride on Galactica and then he was sated. I wanted to go on the Battle Galleons  water fight ride . Simon was less keen but we both went  on  it. I  thought it was great fun. We  had  a look round the incongruous aquarium and then it was time to get back on the monorail and go.

We found the car again reasonably quickly and departed, We stopped at a nice pub in Cheadle for tea then returned to lovely Longton.

We  overslept in the morning which nixed our plans to go to church in Longton. We still had time to get some breakfast at Gregg's before check out  time. We drove to Illam for  a  short walk from a book I'd brought along. We parked at the National Trust car park at Illam Hall  which  gave  us  four  hours for  the  walk. 

It  was  very  warm  and  I  struggled as  we  climbed out  of  the  village  and  had  to  rest  awhile  as  I  felt  nauseous. It  was  then  slow  going  on  a  steep  descent through  the  woods  to  the  primeval loveliness of  Dovedale.

It  was  then  much  easier going on the  wide paths alongside the river.

We  came  to  the  famous  stepping  stones  where  Simon got  a  bit  impatient  as we  had  to  wait  our  turn to cross.

We had to cut the walk short here as  there was an obvious short cut back to Illam and we were running out of time. We  stopped at a snack shack to get a  welcome  drink on the way. We  had outstayed our  parking time  a bit but we  hadn't  got a ticket. As always  the drive back from the Peak District was a bit of a grind and we had to go  straight to church before going home but we made it in time.