From Windsor to Waddesdon

Things have been so busy, that I have not had time to write about what happened last weekend. 

Friday we went to meet up with a friend just over from the States and we visited Windsor Castle together.  I was absolutely blown away with the scale of the state rooms.  Absolutely amazing work, wood carvings, masonry and gold leaf plus a rather large collection of knives, swords, armour and guns. No pictures inside, but we bought the guide book.  Our friend also had her 18 month old daughter with her, who although very charming, was not really old enough to appreciate her surroundings.  Although she did like the red ropes that seemed to be everywhere!  Luckily, our tickets are valid for the next 12 months and so we can return again and take our time going around rooms and the castle. We all like the Christmas trees. There were three inside, one was huge one, with lights and very stately crowns on it, the second, hung from the ceiling as they would have done in Victorian times the third smaller and lavishly decorated. We were impressed by these trees...  until the next afternoon, sorry Windsor Castle, your trees are fabulous, but we found better.

The Queen arrived just as we were leaving, and the Royal Standard was hoisted.  We didn't see HRH.

It was a cold day but bright, and here is the sunset.

The next afternoon, on our “let’s visit lots of people before Christmas tour”, we went to Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury.  This estate is owned by the Rothschild Family but seems to be run by the National Trust, so our NT card got us in. Unexpectedly, it was really busy, we were parked at the side of the driveway, nowhere near the car park or the house.  And people continued to arrive and park behind us. We walked to the house which looks so different from any other country houses which we’ve been to in the UK.  I guess it looks like a large French estate house, lots of details on the masonry and very clean.  There was a little wooden shed nearby which stated that this was the place to get house tickets – we got ours and could not get into the house until 3.45pm.  So we had 3 hours to wander around the grounds, look around the aviary and find odd sculptures.  We went to the stables and drank mulled wine and ate hot dogs whilst being entertained by a choir.  We were nearly late getting into the house as were enjoying going around the wine cellar (just looking), but luckily we remembered the time and were soon standing outside the door.  

Once we got in, we realised why Waddesdon was so busy, we were not there to see the house and its collections but to see the lavish and imaginative Christmas decorations, themed around Italy. The first trees were amazing, with Venetian Masks hanging from the branches.  I liked them very much and wondered what was to come next.  We slowly went up a spiral staircase and saw shapes and vases decorated with dried pasta – imagination and humour!  Other rooms we went into and there were more trees and decorations. Themes for decorating trees varied from Leonardo Da Vinci to a Volcano.  One staircase was dedicated to the story of Befana, a story which I knew nothing about, and some small rooms were all about the story of Pinocchio. I could have spent hours there, but we were only allowed a short time. It was wonderful though and now you see why I have two trees.  Thing is we’ll have to go back to Waddesdon Manor so that we can see all of the brilliant collections there.

Waddesdon on arrival - cars everywhere!

At the back of the house. 
All the statues were covered like this, it was like walking in a garden of ghosts.

Father Christmas greeting people at the entrance.

It's getting dark.