Lacock

Yesterday, my parents and I took a day trip to Lacock, a village in Wiltshire that's famous for being the setting of many famous films and series. Thanks to its quaint and old-fashioned appearance, it's been used as a backdrop for the BBC Pride and Prejudice series, Downton Abbey, and the Harry Potter films, among other things! So as you can imagine, it's very popular with tourists.

We really enjoyed visiting Lacock, although the day turned out to be more eventful than we expected. But I'll get to that later!

The main streets of the village itself are very picturesque and instantly recognisable to anyone who's seen the costume dramas mentioned above.

But the most famous part of Lacock is its abbey and the abbey grounds, owned by the National Trust.

The grounds have various different parts to explore. The first bit we saw was the botanical garden, where you can find many types of flowers, some used for medicinal purposes.

Then we visited the orchard, in front of St Cyriac's church.

One of my favourite parts of the grounds was the rose garden, which was really pretty to look at.

Then we came to this little lake with views across to the abbey. It was a really idyllic place.

The abbey itself was a huge and very impressive building. The cloisters inside were used as part of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies, and I really wanted to see them. But unfortunately, the interior of the abbey is currently closed to visitors due to Covid 19. However, seeing the exterior was still a great experience.

The final part of the grounds we saw was the courtyard, with this interesting German-looking building.

Lacock was such a nice place to walk around, and I would definitely recommend it as a great travel destination for the current times we're living in. Because it was a hot day, there were plenty of people there, but a really effective one-way system had been set up, so social distancing was always possible.

One disadvantage of the summer weather was that the car engine overheated on the way back and we had to stop in a lay-by in a small village. Luckily there was a pub there so we could go and get some food and drink while waiting for the recovery van, before getting towed back home!

Despite all that, it was still a very nice day. I showed the pictures to my boyfriend, and he said he'd like to go to Lacock with me when he comes to England. Hopefully that won't be too far in the future! I also hope that next time we'll be able to visit Hogwarts!