Buscot Park

The weather in the south of England is actually very nice for this time of year, so my parents and I took advantage of the sunshine last weekend and went on a trip to Buscot Park, a National Trust property in Oxfordshire.

The manor house itself is closed but the grounds are still open to the public from 2-6 pm every day. And there's a lot to explore within the grounds! It was quite busy because of the weather and because it was Sunday, but the area is so big that social distancing was relatively easy.

When we arrived, we passed the tearoom, which is a really nice setting with frescoes on the walls. Unfortunately, it's closed at the moment due to Covid (hence why this photo was taken through a window!), but there is a food truck selling drinks and snacks outside the main house.

The first part of the grounds we explored was the Four Seasons Walled Garden, a garden with many varieties of plants and a clock tower in the background.

Next we had a look at the Terracotta Warrior statues, which are exact replicas of some of the original statues from Xi'an, China. I actually discovered another photo of them on my phone from March 2016, so we obviously must have gone to Buscot Park during the Easter holidays in my first year at university. Weirdly, I have absolutely no memory of it!

Nearby there's a water feature, the Faux Falls. As the name suggests, it's a fake waterfall. It's not possible to look at it very closely as the area is blocked off (maybe because of social distancing measures), but it actually looks more impressive the further away you are from it.

The house itself must be a very nice place to visit when it's open, as it contains works of art by famous artists such as Rembrandt, Rossetti, Rubens and Murillo. However, seeing the house from the outside is still a great experience. It's a very impressive building, and there are several interesting statues and smaller buildings surrounding it.

My favourite part of the house was this bit where you go through a little tunnel (which is painted with frescoes) and find a beautiful swimming pool on the other side. It was tempting to dive in!

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the Peto Water Garden, one of the most famous Italian-style water gardens in Britain. It features various interesting statues and leads down towards a lake, on the other side of which you can see a bridge and a little temple. It's a very beautiful and tranquil place.

There are actually several different gardens across the park. We didn't visit them all, but one of the most unusual ones we saw was the Swinging Garden, a garden with four swing seats around the edge!

I was interested in these two Sphinx-like statues, which both have messages in Greek written on their plinths. I think Greek will definitely be one of the next languages I have a go at learning!

Overall, we had a really nice afternoon exploring Buscot Park. It's a really scenic place to walk around, and thanks to the classical architecture and the sunshine, it almost felt like being in Italy or Greece. Because the pandemic has made travelling abroad so much more complicated, I'm interested in finding places in the UK that are good alternatives to foreign destinations, and this one will definitely go on that list.

The trip was also a nice distraction, as I've been very worried about potential new coronavirus restrictions. Luckily, the new measures announced today are not as strict as I'd feared, which means my boyfriend and I will be able to visit different places next month, once we've finished our two weeks' quarantine! Any trips we do will have to be planned at the last minute due to the current situation, but that's not really a problem. The most important thing is that we'll get to spend several weeks together, after not seeing each other since March. Not long to go now, and I can't wait!

The Lake District: Day Three

On the morning of our second (and last) full day in the Lake District, we got a taxi down to Bowness-on-Windermere, a town that's popular with tourists. It's a very busy but picturesque place with lots of wildlife!

We were there to catch a boat and go on a cruise across to Lakeside, a village at the south end of Lake Windermere, where the lake flows into the River Leven. 

It was very cold on the boat, but I really enjoyed the trip. Windermere is actually the largest lake in England, at a length of 10 miles and a width of 1 mile, and is surrounded by hills and mountains. Therefore it offers many beautiful views.

I particularly liked this building which looks like a castle, but is actually a viewing station called Claife Heights.

When we arrived at Lakeside, we boarded an old steam train and went on a trip down to the village of Haverthwaite and back again. The views of the river and the surrounding countryside were great, and the train and railway station were like a snapshot from the past, reminiscent of when train travel was enjoyable!

Afterwards we got on the boat again to go back to Bowness. This time, we travelled quite closely past Belle Isle, the biggest island in the lake, at 1 km in length. There is just one house on the island, called the Round House. Its design was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, and it was possible to see the top of it from the boat. We could also see an adorable little poodle waiting at the end of a jetty on the island! Unfortunately, it's very hard to see him/her in my picture!

Once we were back in Bowness, we went to the Belsfield Hotel for a very special afternoon tea. The hotel is an incredible place, that looks almost like a palace both inside and out.

The best thing is that they offer afternoon teas for all dietary requirements, including a vegan one, which was obviously the one I chose. It was really delicious and so big that I could save some for supper and the next day's lunch!

From where we were sitting, we had great views over the lake and the gardens of the hotel. There were little rabbits happily frolicking about just outside the window!

The views from outside the hotel were also amazing.

We got a taxi back to Windermere to relax in the hotel for a couple of hours. Then my dad and I went for a walk through the town. Like I'd done the previous day, we walked up Queen Adelaide's Hill. However this time, the views were clearer as the weather was nicer.

Afterwards we walked through another public footpath. There was a beautiful waterfall there that we hadn't been expecting to find!

The footpath eventually leads to the shore of the lake. It was very peaceful to watch the sun setting over the water.

Then we walked back up the footpath and carried on along the main road. We came across a viewpoint where you can see across to various mountains including Scafell Pike, the tallest mountain in England. If I ever go back to the Lake District, I'd like to have a go at climbing it!

Finally, as we were walking back towards the hotel, we saw three beautiful deer in a field! It was hard to get good photos of them on my phone camera, but it was amazing to watch them.

This was our last bit of sightseeing in the area, as we drove back down to Wiltshire the next day. Overall, I enjoyed our visit to the Lake District a lot and I found it more interesting than I expected to.

My favourite places were the two waterfalls we saw: Stock Ghyll Force and the waterfall in Windermere. I really liked the nature of the area as a whole, because it was surprisingly reminiscent of my trip to the south of Chile in 2018. My boyfriend (who's from Chile) said the same thing when he saw the photos! Okay, so there aren't any snow-capped volcanoes and imposing Andes mountains in the English Lake District like there are in the Chilean Lake District, but there are still (smaller) mountains, lakes (obviously), rivers, forests and waterfalls. And very cold weather!

I was expecting the nature to be more like my local "Lake District", the Cotswold Water Park. However, the two areas are actually very different. The Cotswold Water Park has around 150 small lakes spread across a small area, whereas the Lake District has 16 much larger lakes spaced further apart. I would definitely recommend both as great places to visit.

This trip was the first proper holiday I've had since the start of the pandemic and it was a bit of a different experience. We wore masks inside the communal areas of the hotel and in all public places except for remote outdoor spaces, and we also had to order breakfast at the hotel the evening before, as buffets aren't Covid compliant. But these things weren't really a big deal for me, and they made me feel more safe. The only issue I had regarding Covid safety was with the crowds of people that were in Ambleside and Bowness, because at times social distancing wasn't possible, and not everyone was wearing a mask or making an effort to keep as much distance as they could.

All things considered, I feel mostly okay about travelling again, and I found that this trip was good preparation for when I go abroad with my boyfriend in a month or two's time. I don't think I would go abroad at this time if the circumstances of my life and relationship were different, but it's going to be my boyfriend's first trip to Europe, so we need to make the most of it! Besides, I do believe that we all need to try to live our lives with some sort of normality, given that we don't know how long this situation will continue for. If we take the necessary precautions (like mask-wearing and social distancing), then we can safely enjoy both domestic and international travel.

In the coming weeks, I plan to do a couple more local trips with my family. Then, at last, my boyfriend will arrive in England and we'll have two weeks of self-isolation at home. Afterwards (barring any further lockdowns -  I pray this doesn't happen) we'll be free to explore the UK and beyond. It's a strange time at the moment, and therefore travelling is a bit different than it used to be. But I'm excited to go on some slightly more adventurous travel adventures over the coming months!

Read about The Lake District: Days One and Two here!