Day 29 & 30 Burghley House, Stamford, Lincolnshire

Day 29 was a lay day for John to catch on some of the jobs Susan had very kindly been saving for him.

Day 30 - Burghley House, Stamford 

At the suggestion of our friends in Adelaide, David and Ailsa, we went to Stamford for the day. David grew up in this area and he knows of Barb's love for castles and stately homes. He said this place would not disappoint .... and he wasn't wrong!

This was our first view of Burghley house as we entered from the carpar
(Actually our first view was from the road - but the estate boundary
walls went on for some miles before we found the sign post for the way in)

Burghley house is a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. It maintains its outside appearance but was re-modelled in the 1800s and is still lived in by the Cecil family, but parts of it and the gardens are open for public viewing. It really is worth a look!

We started with a tour of the gardens which include a sculpture trail and water garden.

A rill flowing down to Neptune's cave

The inside of Neptune's grotto

A metal tree sculture

Stone mosaic entrance to the garden

Hidden in a maze

Another sculpture

A metal creature
Looks like a dog about to eat its own tail - with added dragon features

Reflections of the water sculptures

A fox perhaps?

An ice house in the garden keeps ice year round

We moved on to see the house .... nope, that's the stables!

Now that's the house. Complete with a  sentry box like a palace

Barb is excited to get inside for a look round

That's the original kitchen

Lots of bells to call the servants to the right room
Sir rang? B****! Which one?

The inner courtyard

Ornate bedrooms galore

Exquisite tapestries and artwork abound

Even has murals on the ceilings

I've seen palaces less ornate than this....it's overwhelming!

Queen Victoria's bed had steps to climb into the bed

Gobsmacking ceiling in the stairwell

We tore ourselves away from the house (above) to go into Stamford itself for lunch (below)

It's a picturesque town for sure

Lots of boutique shops on the high street

We loved having a poke around the streets

Okay David and Ailsa....we've convinced! This town is well worth a visit.

Gettting a bite to eat was initially very annoying. We sat down in a pub restaurant only to find that

we had to order online via their website. OK, we'll give it a go.  All was fine - drinks and food - until they wanted name, mobile, email, address (yep, seriously!), but John finally cracked when they wanted card details up front before there'd been any human contact. The Italian restaurant right next door was really, really good!