Hampshire Weekender

Well really this should have been entitled 'Ferrari Weekender'.  I'm away this weekend with a friend and he's hired us a Ferrari 438 as our transport for the weekend.  We're off away to the 4 Seasons Hotel in Dogmersfield in Hampshire, we've had it planned for a few weeks so it should be fun.

We meet on the Friday around 1pm at a high end car hire company on York Road near to Kings Cross Station ( www.bespokes.co.uk ).  We hand over our driving licences and after some inspection for no endorsements we're given a whistle stop tour of the ins and outs of driving and Ferrari and in no time at all we are let lose onto the streets of London.  At this point it's best to note a few points.

• We're in London in a car on a Friday so the traffic is awful.
• It's raining so that's making the traffic worse.
• We're in an unfamiliar car.
• We're in a Ferrari F438 with almost 500 horse power with an F1 gearbox.

So we're loose in London in the super car and about 5 miles into the busy Friday afternoon traffic whilst driving on a busy dual carriageway a large stone hits the screen and puts a big chip in it.  Oh dear, we didn't need that but can't worry or do anything about it now so head onwards around the North Circular onto the M40, out to the M25 and around to M3.  The Sat Nav says it's about 30 minutes from our entry onto the M3.  We're quite aware that people are looking at us as we're in this big red monster car.  Before we know it we're leaving the M3 and driving on smaller 'A-roads' through small towns in a very noisy car.  In no time at all we reach our destination of the 4 seasons hotel.  Wow it looks great, we could't decide on valet parking or not but in the end parked ourselves.

 

 

 

Four Seasons Hotel in Dogmerfield, Hampshire, UK

As you can see the hotel looks great and the welcome given by the staff was excellent and the rooms are very well appointed indeed.  We met in the Spa area a few hours later and there's a great outdoor warm jacuzzi which seemed good no matter what the weather.  In the evening we dine in the hotels own restaurant and I must say the Fish and Chips I pick was fantastic, lovely fresh fish with very well cooked chips.

The next day we head out and thankfully the sun is shining so we can get the top down on the car.  We head through the New Forest towards Lymington which in on the South coast.  We drive through the town and it would appear we are going to have some trouble parking this thing, it's not the kind of car you can just pop in any old space or an normal NCP car park.

Lymington Quay Side

Lymington is a lovely little town and in the end up we manage to park a few hundred metres from the Quay side in a car park which probably isn't massively popular as it's a little bit of a walk back to the main shops.  We have a coffee and browse the various shops that the high street has to offer then decide to head into the New Forest for lunch.

 

F438 in the New Forest.

We drive for a bit until we find a suitable lunch that has a car park we can get the red monster into.  We find one and get in no problem.  It's a nice pub in a quiet location which has a carp park for around 20 cars, it's quite a busy car park but the spaces are generous and there's a few empty ones.  We get the car in no problem and go into the pub.  It appears the car has attracted some attention as the staff ask lots of questions.

 

After lunch we head back to the hotel and decide upon our evenings activities.  We decide to catch 'Rush' at the cinema in Basingstoke and think there's no way we fancy driving in there so catch a cab.  Whilst waiting outside shortly before the taxi arrives i captured the below photo on the iPhone.

 

Sunset with F438 and friends.

The film was great and both ways we have the same taxi, a Toyota Prius, which unbelievably seemed to be averaging around 78mpg which I was amazed at having never been in a Prius before.

 

On Sunday we head home reasonably as it's raining again.  We stop of at some friends houses with the car to give them a look whilst we've got it.

 

On the Monday I drop the car back to Kings Cross which in itself is a nightmare as again driving in the London traffic isn't the easiest with such a car.

 

A great weekend!

 

Technorati Tags: 4 Seasons, Dogmersfield, F430, Ferrari, Lymington, New Forest, bespokes.co.uk