Daily photo - 9: Motorway welcome break

When I was younger and I drove to other parts of the UK for the weekend, I didn't think anything of setting off at 9 or 10 o'clock at night to drive back to London. I would regularly do this when I drove up to Yorkshire to visit my family. Night driving was maybe less interesting due to not being able to see the countryside, but you were generally guaranteed a clear run. It was always good to breeze through North London and Central London to get to my home in South London in the dead of night.

Now that I am a bit older I find that I can no longer do that. I am starting to get tired easily. If I am driving after 10 pm it just becomes risky business as I start to doze off. I don't even need to have been driving far.

Turning the radio on really loudly makes no difference either - I have been known to fall sleep soundly in a night club or during an opera!

Marsh Farm Hotel

So, in short I have decided to avoid long drives late at night. That means I will get to know the hotels along the different motorways.

I guess it's a bit of variety from getting to know what's along the different rail trails!

Returning from my trip to Gloucestershire I found a very pleasant place to stay, the Marsh Farm Hotel. It was just off junction 16 of the M4, at Wootton Bassett.

I could have stayed at a Holiday Inn nearby, but it's more pleasant to stay at independent places. Also, this place was a couple of miles from the motorway so it was still fairly peaceful.

Considering that it was a Sunday night, there were still quite a lot of people in the hotel - mainly people from Abroad - a group of German motorbikers, and some Belgian Tourists. I'm not entirely sure what they would have liked about Wootton Bassett. It's a somewhat morbid place associated with the armed forces and solemn parades through the town when a soldier gets killed in service.

Given that they were of a similar age to me, I am guessing they are going through the same sleep issues as myself after 9pm. 

It's happening. We are getting old. The struggle is real, but thank goodness for motorway hotels!