Blog ≫ 2025 ≫ Big Stratford day out Saturday
I forewent the parkrun Saturday morning so we could get a 9am train to Stratford for our big day out. Train quite busy at that time but fine. We sat pretty much together and did our Duolingo and things on the way up. Train was too busy and too early but too unrowdy for me to drink the premix spiced rum and coke I had bought for the journey. This would be a new one on me but someone brought some spiced rum back from holiday and doled it out in the Potting Shed last week and it was really quite nice, so I thought I'd have this. I did not.
We shopped a little bit, bought a book and some t-shirts and a game for Clare's niece's birthday but we could not reall put our backs into it, so we had an early lunch in the food court instead. The places I really wanted to get something from - Pho or Rhythm Kitchen - were not up and running yet so I had some disappoint vegan nuggets in spicy sauce from somewhere or other. T1 enjoyed his tacos with extra meat and T2 his boring Subway, but Clare felt the same as I about her quesadilla - filled up but not in any way nutrioned. Still, onwards!
We had an hour before the first activity and tried to go to The Cow as that's a nice comfortable pub, but there was football on, so everywhere was heaving, we could not have squeezed in there. We went in Black Tap Craft Burgers instead, "craft burgers and beer" they say, not even actually "craft beer", so not a sniff of real ale, but at least they could fit us in a table. This was wasted units imo, but T1 had quite an impressive milkshake. His was just the normal milkshake as Clare said NO to the £15 crazy shake. We saw people on the next table have them, they come loaded with biscuits and sweets and things. I would have said yes, he should have asked me first.
Next stop the ArcelorMettal Orbit, it's a sculpture, but it's a massive slide too. The boys were going down the slide, I had to accompany them to the top. Man alive it's high and I just would not have fancied the slide down. They had to suit up in helmets and pads and get into a sack. And would you look at that it's the world's longest slide of this kind.
The world’s longest and tallest tunnel slide
Where art and adventure collide, Helix is the world’s longest and tallest tunnel slide spanning 178m in length, and located on the iconic ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture. Appreciate the incredible design of the sculpture’s twists and turns as you loop around 12 times, catching glimpses of London from new heights.
After this, to Gravity Max to play darts. This was fun, but I cannot say it was a good deal, we paid about sixty quid for an hour's use of an AR dartboard (dartboard with sensors and a projector). Boys liked it.
The rest of Gravity Max is like a huge huge arcade with extras. It has mini golf, though not as good as Puttshack. Impressively it has a big go-kart track going through the whole thing. You could certainly spend some money there, and we did, but only another twenty quid or so in the arcade. And for that we won two packs of Pokemon cards.
After this we did get into The Cow, while the football was on, and enjoyable it was too. Comfy chairs around a table, real ale, and a TV in the distance where I could see the football scores. Then a break for the Grand National, no interest in this though.
We had a booking for dinner in Figo, Italian, but stopped briefly in Cabana for a drink. Liked the look of the menu, so cancelled Figo to eat there. Then the power all went off in the kitchen, sorry, we can't cook anything now! Have your round of drinks for free to say sorry though. Then spotted the cancellation hadn't actually gone through, so we still got into Figo. That was a lovely meal, Figo is really nice, a bit more expensive than normal for dinner but we all liked it a lot, so ok.
Actually just found the bill and it is quite pricy, but it was a lovely dinner:
- basket of bread £5.90
- padron peppers £7.90
- calamari £14.90
- al rosmarino £10.90
- penne arrabbiata £17.90
- tagliatelle lamb ragu £26.50
- bufalina pizza £20.40
- ortalana vegan pizza £18.50
- appletiser x 2 £9.80
- soave cantina di monteforte £9.00
- la corte rosso cantina di monteforte £9.00
That's two glasses of house wine at the bottom. T2's starter of squid and Clare's main of lamb standing out slightly there. Is it Appletiser or Appletise? Did it change ever?
We were deliberately not keeping an eye on the train times so as to not rush dinner, so when we got out of course we had just missed a train and there was nearly an hour to wait. But not to worry as we could wait in Tap East and play one more game of cards with another real ale! Everyone wins.
Taxi back from the station and not even too late. What a lovely day.
⬅️ Last minute half day off Friday :: Active day Sunday too ➡️