Longleat and Center Parcs

Center Parcs

Every time I visit the UK I suggest some random spur-of-the-moment activity to my mum and see what she says, this time I suggested a spa day at Centre Parcs near Longleat, and because it's so near to Longleat house and safari why not go there too. She said yes, she normally does so we booked a day spa at the Aqua Sana Spa in Center Parcs.
I'd always wanted to visit Center Parcs, it was a place other children always went on holiday to when I was at school and seemed like a magical place but I had no idea it had a spa until Cathy, who I'd met on the Green Tortoise canyons tour said she'd had a lovely spa day there, I thought this was a fantastic idea to spent a day doing zero.
The spa had 18 different steam, sauna and relaxation rooms plus a pool/Jacuzzi. Although I found I wasn't very good at doing zero, so while most people were drifting of to sleep or into some form of meditation in the relaxation rooms, after a few minutes I wanted to go to the next room to see what it was like. To properly relax I needed my book but all my books are on my Kindle which isn't ideal for steamy wet rooms. Anyway, all rooms were wonderfully decorated with intriguing names like Balinese Multi-Steam Bath, Japanese Salt Steam Bath, Tyrolean Sauna, Turkish Hamman and Tepidarium, plus a load more, our favourite was the Greek Herbal Bath which had three different herbs in three separate piles on a gauze heated plate above which was a bucket and every 12 minutes the bucket rotated upside-down and squirted water onto one of the herb piles to infuse the smell, it rotated round each three herbs. Initially I imagined the bucket full of water and would cause a deluge over the herbs and wash them all away.
There was also a Pensive, like the one in Harry Potter, unfortunately it was out of order and they had called it the Ice Fountain instead.

Aqua Sana Spa at Center Parcs

Longleat House and Safari Park

Longleat House is a big ol stately home that rich people live in and gets past down through the male family line, due to the hefty death duties that apply to such a big country pile, one inspired heir- Henry Frederick Thynne, 6th Marquess of Bath, decided to open the house to the public in 1947 order for Longleat to survive. The idea for a safari park came in the 60's but Henry didn't like the idea of caged animals, his adviser said "we won't cage the animals, we'll cage the people", and so it was, in 1966 the drive through safari park opened and the animals wandered freely. It was the first safari park outside Africa.

We got there before the house officially opened but they were offering a look behind the scenes into the private rooms of the current 7th Marquess of Bath -Alexander Thynn, to the modest group of people who had got there early. The 7th Marquess is known for his lively jumpers and decorating style, as the house is now looking after itself rather well, he didn't really have to worry about much so spent a good deal of time repainting his part of the house in bright primary colours, creating murals all about the place, collecting art  and having relations with 'wifelets', his wife apparently doesn't mind this, probably because the estate is worth $157 million now. They don't tell you the last bit about the wifelets on the tour, but do speak highly of his painting 'style' which are akin to children's drawings. 

In 2010 he past management of Longleat to his son who now apparently intends to evict the wifelets from their estate cottages, and possibly even remove his Lordship's murals. 

The good thing a Longleat Charitable Trust was set up in 1966, which has helped to relieve poverty amongst people living around the Longleat Estate and Cheddar Gorge area, supporting pensioners and providing grants to local institutions. 

There is also an excellent hedge maze.