Dyrham Park

Yesterday, we went on our second outdoor outing of the week, this time to Dyrham Park.

Dyrham Park is one of our favourite National Trust properties to visit, as the mansion is so impressive to see and its gardens are beautiful.

Like Lacock, Dyrham has been used as the setting for various TV series and films. In recent years, it has played the part of Sanditon Manor in the TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Sanditon, and a French country hotel in the WWI drama The Crimson Field.

When you see the house, it's easy to understand why it's so popular.

The house is currently closed to visitors due to Covid 19, but to be honest, that didn't matter to us very much, as we've already been inside it at least a few times! Besides, I think the gardens are more interesting than the mansion's interior. I particularly liked seeing the lake, which was surrounded by colourful flowers.

One of the things Dyrham is best known for is its population of deer, but unfortunately they weren't around yesterday, though we have seen them on previous visits. However, we did meet another animal friend! This regal-looking cat was very happy to stare down at us from the top of his wall!

Afterwards, we drove to the Tog Hill picnic site to eat our lunch. There are amazing views from up there; you can see across to the entire city of Bristol, the Severn Bridges and beyond to the Welsh hills.

It was a very nice day out, though I have to admit that I am feeling the urge to visit somewhere a little different, like a city or a beach. I like the countryside, but it would be good to have a bit of a change of scenery, or even a trip to a different country. However, going abroad unnecessarily just doesn't seem like a good idea at the moment, so I guess that will have to wait a while. 

Our next trip will be to another nearby National Trust property this Sunday. Although it won't quite be the change of scenery I'm dreaming of, it is at least a place I haven't been to before. My parents told me it has an excellent café and a resident cat, so I'm looking forward to checking it out!

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!

The Uffington White Horse

Yesterday my parents and I took a trip to the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire, in South East England. This was actually the first time I'd left the South West and crossed into a different region since our trip to Oxford in March, so it felt like a kind of milestone. 

The White Horse is a really fascinating place to visit and is an important marker of the history of this country. As the name implies, it's a drawing of a white horse on a hill. But what's really interesting is that it's believed to have been created in prehistoric times, sometime between 1000 BC and 100 AD. It's amazing to think that it's still here today.

In addition, the horse is located in a really picturesque part of the English countryside, in the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, so you can see fantastic panoramic views from up on the hill. 

The only downside is that the horse is really seen best from the air, rather than from the walking trail, so my pictures don't show the outline of the horse very clearly. (I would definitely recommend giving it an image search online!) But luckily, I was able to take lots of nice photos of the surrounding countryside.

It was really nice to travel to a different region of England and visit such a historical place. I'm looking forward to going further afield as well as seeing some more local places in the coming months...

Cleveland Lakes Nature Reserve

So this week's trip was to Cleveland Lakes Nature Reserve. 

The name of the destination may make it sound like I've left the country and gone to Cleveland, Ohio in the United States, but in fact the nature reserve is another one of those places just down the road which we'd never got round to visiting before!

However, like many of the other places in the Cotswold Water Park, it has scenery that, to me, is very reminiscent of the lakes you'd find in the U.S. or Canada.

I had read on the Cotswold Water Park website that otters live in the Cleveland Lakes, and I was really hoping to see one. Unfortunately, they seemed to be hiding yesterday, but we did see a beautiful swan!

After our walk by the lakes, we went to the nearby Jennie's Kitchen café, which I've previously written about on this blog. Sadly, the alpaca pictured with me outside the café in my Cotswold Water Park post has been moved to a different field, so I couldn't say hello to him this time. But it was still really nice to go there again for the first time since March, look at the flowers in the garden, and enjoy a vegan chocolate cheesecake!

All in all, it was a lovely morning. Even though I wish I was living in Chile right now, visiting places like these makes me appreciate my local area a lot more.

Cotswold Lavender: A Little Bit of Provence in England

This week's trip was to Cotswold Lavender in the north of Gloucestershire. It's a field of lavender, which as the title of this post suggests, is very reminiscent of the famous lavender fields of the south of France. So it's one of those pseudo-foreign destinations in the UK that are nice alternatives to destinations abroad, especially now at this time when taking a flight or staying in a hotel can feel a little risky.

But to be honest, even visiting Cotswold Lavender felt slightly risky. It was surprisingly busy, even though we arrived there at opening time on a weekday morning and the weather was bad. (I guess that's one area in which England can't really compete with Provence!) And I often felt like my parents and I were having to be extra vigilant about social distancing, as many other people seemed to be totally unaware that it's still something we all must do...

However, it was still a really nice place to visit. The field was beautiful to see; there were several different types of lavender of various shapes and colours, as well as a section filled with chamomile flowers. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't ideal for taking photos, but that didn't stop me from snapping away with my phone!

I think Cotswold Lavender would be a better place to visit in non-pandemic times, when the distillery, shop and café are open again, and visitors can make more of a proper day out of a visit there. Right now, there's only a kiosk open to buy some gifts and drinks, and as there was already a queue building up outside it by the time we finished our visit, we decided to go and have a coffee somewhere else.

We ended up stopping off at the Cotswold Food Store in Longborough and going to the café there. The only vegan cake available was a fruit cake (which wouldn't be my first choice!) but it was very tasty, as was my soya latte.

In summary, it was a really nice morning and I enjoyed the experience of feeling like I was in France whilst still being in the UK!