Saturday outing To Woburn Abbey

Having spent a great amount of time in the house since Carol's illness, it was more than necessary for us to have some time out. Carol wanted to visit Woburn Abbey, as it's only a 20-minute drive from home. We regularly drive through the park to see the deer. The weather was somewhat undecided and threatened rain but as we drove away from Milton Keynes along the A5 the rain held off. We were able to use our H.H.A. (Historic Houses Association) membership to gain free entry to the Abbey and the house. it's a really pleasant drive along the drive which leads to the Abbey and you are treated to to the sight of the deer who roam freely within the park. We were followed by a coach which no doubt had many visitors on board. Having parked up in the carpark, which was relatively space-free at the time we arrived, but it gradually filled up as the morning continued. We walked in to the Abbey grounds through the gift shop and then went into the gardens. A beautifully maintained delight, peaceful and relaxing. We came across a group of guinea fowl, which neither of us had seen before and they were not only beautiful but very comical, making strange noises and following a leader across the lawns. A number of other visitors pottering around as we were. I think they had arrived on one of the coaches and were something to do with a 'pruning day' or something, whatever that was, but I presume these people were keen amateur gardeners. We walked towards the golden pheasant enclosure and Carol attempted to take some photographs. There was one sitting on a ledge at the back of the enclosure, a bright blue iridescent colour, but with a particularly ugly face. We attempted to make polite conversation with a man from the gardening group, but he was just plain miserable. We always attempt to have conversations with the people we encounter when we visit such places, but from what we saw, when he was back with the woman who we assumed was his partner or at least, wife, he didn't look as if he was that pleased to be there and would have rather been doing something else. Visiting Woburn Abbey under duress, if that's the right word! We continued our walk and took photographs as we went.

We approached the entrance to the Abbey itself, but before we did so we went into The Duchesses' Tearoom where we had coffee and pastries. Very pleasant, but somewhat over-priced, but that is what you expect at such places and considering Woburn Abbey must be one of the major tourist spots you can see why they would want to wring as much profit out of such a place. Never mind.

Inside the Abbey itself there is currently an exhibition about Queen Victoria's visit to Woburn Abbey sometime in the 19th century. There are documents and drawings from this great occasion and you can see the actual bed within the bedroom where she slept. Also, there's a dress she wore and from what we saw it was obvious that she was tiny. A great many visitors being guided by tour guides but the staff on duty in each room were very knowledgeable about each item in the rooms we walked through as well as being very friendly. No doubt the Victoria exhibition ties in neatly with the I.T.V. drama series which is currently being shown on television on Sunday evenings and has reached the second series.

We spent near enough three hours at Woburn Abbey, but no doubt you could spent considerably more time there. A great deal to see and do. So we returned to the carpark and drove home to Milton Keynes.