New Year in Cambridge
Saturday 31st December 2022 – Monday 2nd January 2023
Day 1
With a child free New Year’s Eve looming what better to do than close our eyes, put our finger on a map and book a weekend away! After settling on Cambridge we discovered a formal New Year’s Eve Gala at a city centre hotel so booked in.
A leisurely start to Saturday and we headed off to to Cambridge at lunchtime, the weather was awful so it was a roof up journey the whole way. The vast majority of the trip was traffic free, with the exception of the last couple of miles which took about 20mins!
We found the hotel got our stuff, left the car for the valet parking, got checked in and enjoyed a complimentary glass of welcome champagne (well I would bet it was Prosecco but who cares it was free!). Steve necked his before I could get a photo which is why he’s covering the glass!
The room was lovely and woohoo for once, no car park view! We dropped off our bags and headed out for an explore and something to eat as the Gala dinner wasn’t until at least 8pm. We had a Five Guys and then looked round a shopping centre, Steve managing to find a Raspberry Pi shop (who knew such a thing existed?).
Back to the hotel, relaxed with a bit of TV (Chitty Chatty Bang Bang!!) before starting to get all dressed up. After a google, YouTube and several failed attempts Steve’s bow tie didn’t look awful and we were all glammed up ready to party.
The champagne (or was it Prosecco?) was flowing freely and there were various canopies being offered round. The drinks were certainly flowing when the waiter leant forward to see what we were doing for our photo by the balloon arch and he tipped his entire tray of full glasses!
We were on a table of 10, made up of 5 couples, three of the other couples were lovely, the fourth were miserable and left in a huff before the evening even started! We managed to sneak their $100 Hilton dollars for the casino and the bottle of Prosecco they left before the waiters cleared their places from the table!
What a fun night, crackers (and associated crappy hats), New Year glasses, reasonable food, lots of alcohol (including two rounds of shots curtesy of the crazy lady on the table), music, dancing and an incredible amount of luck on the Black Jack table for Vikki. Oh and Vikki may have nailed the Macarena on the dance floor but she also blew $19,000 on the final Black Jack hand of the evening!
Day 2
Rolling into bed around 2am meant we were very grateful for a lie in and not having to check out early on Sunday morning. We headed down, around 10.45, to the most chaotic hotel breakfast we’ve ever encountered. It was almost like they didn’t realise how many guests the hotel had – struggled to find an empty and clean table, there were no cups, the coffee was rubbish, the staff stressed and the food pretty poor. Not exactly value for money at £15 per person.
After breakfast there was only one thing to do and that was to go punting. Despite the recommendation the previous night of naked punting we decided to give that a swerve and go a more traditional route! We headed out, found some electric scooters, went for a bit of an explore and pretended to be students to get a discounted rate on a punting boat!
We shared the boat with two other groups of people and the couple closest to us weren’t exactly considerate of the space so it wasn’t the most comfortable hour! It was very tranquil and beautiful but Vikki most definitely regretted not taking her coat and by the time it ended was beyond cold! We headed to Costa to thaw out before heading back to the hotel to collect the car and go visit Steve’s friend Richard.
We finished the day off with dinner and games at a Brewdog pub, possibly with the most unexpectedly spicy chicken we’d ever had and the most random game which required next to no skill and a whole load of guessing. We also discovered that playing crazy golf on an iPhone is harder than you think!
Back to the hotel for beer / wine in bed while watching Bond. Great first day of the year.
Day 3
After the previous day’s chaotic breakfast we were glad we’d decided to forgo the hotel breakfast in favour of getting something after checking out. However, Steve was amazing and headed out returning with croissants and coffee from Starbucks for breakfast in bed before we headed off on an uneventful drive home.
An amazing couple of nights away, seeing out 2022 and bringing in 2023.
