At the Assembly House in Norwich

It’s almost two months since our short-stay in Norwich, and I’m not sure where the time in between has gone. I shared a few pictures of The Assembly House, where we stayed while we were there, but nothing since. Our room was pretty special, in fact all the rooms are - and what’s even better is you can see each of the rooms on their website, before you book. Each has a different vibe and colour theme, and ours was blue and yellow.

The colour scheme may have influenced my choice. And maybe the four poster bed did too. Truth is it was one of the available rooms in our price range, so that helped quite a bit too. What’s strange though is even though we knew what the room would look like before we stepped in, when we did, it still took our breath away. MOH was suitably impressed saying something like “it’s like someone’s house.” And what a complement to any hotel, and it really did.

Although not many homes we know of have grandiose lights like this, let alone in the bedroom.

And I couldn’t help have an arty shot or two.

it was great to have a room that was big enough to have space for some decent sized armchairs, winged at that. And we made good use of them, much better than having to camp out on the bed, which isn’t ideal and is often why we choose apartments when we go away over hotels. Not this time though.

The old fashioned armoire was authentic as it was stylish. It needed some persuasion to open and shut, but that’s all part of the charm n’est pas?

While MOH made good use of the Nespresso machine, I admired the pom poms on the curtains. I know, a new and stylish way for those pom poms. MOH is already braced for the onslaught of pom poms in our house, they’ve made it as far as the cushions, but will they make it onto the curtains?

The artwork was pretty eclectic too, and I admired the mix of modern and traditional. I’m a gallery wall fan, but always struggle to line pictures up just as I want them. I resisted the strong urge to check the back of the pictures, as I’m pretty sure that if these are anything like mine, there’s often some blu tak, and sheer goodwill keeping them where they should be, and that’s not something you need to put right in a very well put together hotel room is it?

And there was plenty of wall art - even between the curtains; this yellow butterfly arrangement may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I loved it.

The breakfasts at The Assembly House were pretty special too, and it’s fair to say it was probably just as well we were only there two nights, or otherwise I’m sure we wouldn’t have been able to move.

A night at The Grosvenor

You’ll remember we went to a wedding at The Grosvenor recently and for ease and a treat we stayed the night too. I mean, there won’t be many other times staying will be on our list, so it seemed rude not to. On arrival we were both wowed by the entrance and the chandelier hanging above the reception.

Our room was a little less grand though.

And as you can see it’s similar to many hotel rooms, although they maximised the London scenes on the wall, which gives you a clue to their more usual market. I think for too much longer than a few nights we’d be running out of room in the room we had. There was cupboard space, but for a short stay we didn’t make much use of those.

I think my favourite part of the room was the soft furnishings, the upholstered chair with the desk and the floor length patterned curtains.

Both added some interest to the room, and looking at it again now, the carpet wasn’t so bad either. Though there’s not many of us that would put checks, swirly paisley-like patterns and stripes together in such a small space, but it didn’t make your eyes hurt.

From the lift lobby - we were on the fifth floor - there was a great view over the station’s platforms. I hadn’t realised before that the hotel was above the station, and even has its own entrance from within the station. Handy for when its raining and you’re in your finery, I’m sure.

So there you go, a peek at our night at The Grosvenor. And in case you’re wondering, the breakfast was good, and I can highly recommend the sausages, but some of the chairs were a bit ‘tired’, but it seems the hotel is going through a refurbishment phase so pehaps the restaurant will get a refresh as part of that.

The rooms that they’ve completed are truly stunning, keeping the traditional style but with a modern touch, and are definitely worth a stop if you’re passing.

More than we bargained for

I'm the sort of trip planner that plans ahead but doesn't quite get around to booking, and then when I'm sure we're going I'll go back to the plans and realise the place I wanted is fully booked, so it all starts again. But not this time - I'd done half the research while we had that sneaky weekend away in February, and I'd even remembered to book the hotel too.

As quite often happens there was a luxury room available, but here it was only an extra twenty pounds. So seduced by the luxury tag I opted for that, quite unprepared for what that might bring. I knew there'd be a bedroom and bathroom, and wasn't disappointed, and there were some nice touches.

White bedlinen, squishy beds, velour dressing gowns and great accessories and in the bathroom full size toiletries.  Everything you could want in a bedroom billed as luxury.

The more than we bargained for bit, was apparent as soon as we walked into the room. And that was a kitchenette and living room, which we were totally not expecting. In fact so not expecting that I was soon on the website checking that I hadn't clicked on the wrong option, or that I'd missed all this information.

Turns out I didn't mess up or miss it, it wasn't there. But after a longer drive than we thought, courtesy of bad weather and too many cars on the road, it was just what was needed. I've said before that self catering is our preferred style for holidays, and that's partly because you get somewhere normal to sit, and don't end up camped out on the bed just for somewhere to sit.

We didn't make much use of the kitchenette - bar for making quite a few cups of tea, and with a good restaurant downstairs in the pub and breakfast included in the cost, I'm not sure you'd need to make much use of it at all.  My only criticism is that with a proper fridge it would have been nice to have proper milk and if we'd been there for longer we would have done. 

Isn't it surprising where crochet turns up?  What surprised me though was the granny square front had been attached to a more glitzy and existing cushion cover.  MOH was rolling his eyes at the inspection of the "knitting" and I'm not sure he got the explanation of why they're different.

The verdict though on our stay at the Bower Inn was definitely a thumbs up - and if we're nearby, we'd stay there again. I've a feeling that it's a busy and buzzing place as the weather warms up. So if you're looking for somewhere to stay in Bridgwater, this could be just the place.