England 2025

I left Lut and Bruce's very beautiful horse farm and only had a 1 hr 43 minute drive to tonight's accommodation, which seemed like a very short jaunt, so I decided to do a big triangle instead and drive 2 hours back to Warwick (where I'd been on the 28th of September) because I did a lot that day and missed St. Mary's Church where I wanted to visit Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester's tomb. He was the very great favourite of Queen Elizabeth I and, according to lots of historians, her secret, not so Virgin Queen Lifelong Love. His first wife died falling down stairs. Did she jump, or was she pushed - or is history not that exciting and she just took a tumble?? Either way, he never did succeed in becoming King Consort, not for wont of trying, but he was a fascinating man. I have been cursing that I missed it a couple of weeks ago, although if I'd done it I'd have had to skip either Kenilworth, or Warwick Castle or Lord Leycester Hospital, so I'm very glad I ...

Happy 18th Anniversary Ian! Thank you for encouraging me not to sacrifice anything on this trip and to still be away enjoying myself on our anniversary. I promise we'll go out for dinner and do something celebratory when I'm home next week. Love you honey xx. In other news - Lovely Lincoln today on my Tour of England's many, many (many, many, many!) Cathedrals. It's darker and has its own personality from the others I've seen. It's very atmospheric and just feels a lovely space to be in. Alistair was our guide today and he clearly loves his Cathedral just so very much - it was gorgeous! It's another one that is built on top of Roman, Norman and bits of Saxon ruins. It's amazing to see the footings of a Roman pillar and imagine what the site looked like when the people who built that were here. The connection to history going back a thousand years, in some places even more, is incomprehensible to me. The 10 sided Chapter House is particularly beautiful Th...

I did a bad thing. Last night I found in the pocket of my wind jacket, the audio guide that I forgot to return at Fountains Abbey a couple of days ago. Uh oh. So I started the day by driving almost 2 hours back to Fountains Abbey to return it and confess my sins. The lady at the desk felt so sorry for me and was so grateful to me for bringing it back that she shouted me a cup of tea in the restaurant, so it wasn’t a complete loss! Eventually (and I do mean I took my sweet time drinking my tea) I headed off for Lincoln, but couldn’t resist going by way of Sherwood Forest. I was intending to make a dash for The Great Oak, just so I could say I’ve seen it, but there weren’t very many people on the path, so I felt like I had the forest to myself and I decided to do the long walk all the way around instead. It’s hard to imagine what it would have been like in Robin Hood’s day, it’s not exactly thick forest anymore, but it’s beautiful nonetheless. Misty and beautiful but why are there co...