I'm back - and I have the first of what will likely be a few posts about our recent trip to England! This trip was my husband's first time in the United Kingdom; I learned while we were there that my MIL has been to Ireland, so she was something of a return visitor! When we arrived in the UK, we had two days of overlap where my parents were finishing up their visit as our visit began - so we made sure to take in some things together while we were all six there!
Our first stop on Sunday (April 30th) was Sandringham House - one of the two homes (the other is Balmoral) personally owned by the Windsors (Wales? Mountbattens?)... that is, the royal family. This is the home they spend Christmas at; and the church on the grounds is where the infamous walk to the church at Christmas takes place! The house was originally bought for 220,000 pounds by Queen Victoria for her eldest son and heir, Albert Edward in hopes that it would instill in him a desire to settle down and cultivate a more "kingly" life. *insert laughter here*
The house is huge - but the tour itself was surprisingly short - we saw about 5-6 rooms that compromised a main portion of the house. I suppose since the family actually lives in the house for a portion of the year (usually late November - February) they don't want people just traipsing through their bedrooms, ha-ha! There was a portion of the house that exhibited watercolors done by King Charles himself; he seems to be quite talented, so I guess he has a fallback if the whole monarchy doesn't work out!
The gardens of the house are truly something to behold - all I could think (and voiced out loud to my husband) was how magical it must have been to have so much nature at your disposal as a child. I would have run wild through the fields, along the streams and around the flower beds! We were able to get a glimpse of the church through the fence - we left before it was open - and made our purchases in the gift shop before heading on our way! A fine start to our visit to England!
We popped over the the Prince of Wales (I think that was the name) Tavern for a traditional Sunday Roast - a dish that has your roast; whether it be chicken, beef, pork or even nut (for the vegans) alongside root veggies or mashed potatoes and Yorkshire pudding - which is not a pudding, but a piece of bread! We also all enjoyed Sticky Toffee Pudding - also not pudding, but cake, ha-ha! We chose to try it with both vanilla ice cream and vanilla custard and the general consensus was the with vanilla ice cream was best!
We made a quick drive from the tavern, past the bright yellow fields of rapeseed that were absolutely everywhere (it's also known as canola) and toward the North Sea. While there were people all along the beach, it seemed a little brisk for a beach day to me - but perhaps the hardy Brits are different! I did dip my toes in but that was all I would dip in because of the chilliness! We walked along the beach and picked up shells and stones; ours are now displayed on our kitchen table!
Our final stop of the day was a random find that my Dad saw a sign for - Castle Rising! The castle was built in 1140 AD and for the low price of six pounds, you could climb up and over the moat and enter the ruins (remains) of the castle to explore! It was fascinating to climb the steps and peer around the ancient stone walls and imagine the lives lived within those very walls - and how very different they were from our lives today!
After climbing up and around and through each nook and cranny of the castle, Ryan and I walked the earthworks that ringed the entire castle and imagined what the castle must have been like in it's prime - moat and all! This was such a delightful find and might have been my favorite part of our day; it's unique to and wander through something that is so historic!
Once we returned to Lindsey's little hometown, we all wandered through town to Byron's Burgers to have burgers and fries (and haloumi) for dinner before heading back to the house and calling it an early night. Jet lag man - it will get to ya!
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