A STRAIGHT TALKING NEW ZEALAND LIFESTYLE BLOG

May 15, 2013

Visiting All the English Counties 6/48Exploring Bedfordshire

I think we’re all guilty of it…we never properly explore our own backyard before booking a flight to some exotic destination.  As I live in Bedfordshire, I’m guilty of blogging more about London than my own home county so this easter I decided to rectify this by exploring Bedfordshire.

Good Friday was rather gorgeous…the sun was shining and there were beautiful blue skies so I took the opportunity to head to Old Warden but one of those pesky brown signs which indicate tourist attractions made me pull over to check out Moggerhanger Park first…

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

…which did look rather pretty with the sheep out the front…two words – pregnant ewes…so scarier than normal sheep!  I took a few snaps and jumped into the smurf mobile and headed towards the Shuttleworth Collection.

I’ve walked around The Swiss Gardens in the past and after getting told it was looking rather pretty on Friday thanks to all the spring flowers I decided to buy a combined ticket for the Shuttleworth Collection and the Gardens (a steep £20 per adult and it’s only valid for a day…a year validity would be a lot better!)…but made all better by the copious amounts of daffodils (one of my favourite flowers)…

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

…and wandered around the gardens which included snooping inside a rather grand old glass house or as it’s properly called…the Grotto and Fernery…just so you know, Santa doesn’t live in this Grotto (I did check)

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

…with beautiful stained windows…

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

…and the interior was just stunning…

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

…simple but absolutely stunning…

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

…next stop was The Swiss Cottage…

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

…hiding in the daffodils!  I love spring time…it puts me in such a happy mood…

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

…to be surrounded by colourful flowers!  A walk in the sunshine through beautiful gardens is good for the soul and blows out a lot of old cobwebs that have built up over winter…it was so lovely to see so many other people enjoying the day in the gardens as well.

Next stop was popping inside the Shuttleworth Collection which is a collection of old aircraft and cars…some of the aircraft inside this collection are the last airworthy aircraft in the world and the reason why the ticket price is so high is that the Collection doesn’t receive any government funding to keep it running…

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

…if you’re an aviation geek then you will love this place…

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

…really really love this place…

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

…I’m pretty sure my dad is going to ask why I’ve never taken him here!  Bedfordshire has numerous air fields and a number of flights to Europe during WW2 took off from the county.

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

^^^I wished my handbag was bigger so that I could take this car home with me

How cool are these buses…

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

…they don’t make them like they used too!

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

And I fell in love with this blue beauty…I’m addicted to blue Fiat’s obviously!

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

After a good snoop around the Collection…I popped into the cafe to see if they had any gluten free options; there were two gluten free cake options but I was a good girl (I got up early to do exercise and then decided against eating cake…I’m seriously sick!).  It was fun exploring Bedfordshire…there’s always something new to discover in your backyard…you just need to find it.

You can read more about Bedfordshire with these posts – Afternoon Tea at Luton Hoo, Exploring Woburn Abbey, Exploring Houghton House, A Gluten Free Guide to Bedfordshire, Afternoon Tea at Flitwick Manor, Exploring Elstow and Dining at St Helena.

So the lovely folks at Three Mobile lent me the new Samsung Galaxy to play with over the Easter break so I could show you all the photo quality…can you tell that all these photos were taken on a phone?  You can read more about the phone specs of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge here and guess what, it’s water proof (awesome if you have a tendency of drowning your phone like I do…oops!).  

Pssst…If you love travelling then I would recommend checking out the Three Mobile Feel at Home plan as it’s awesome…I may have ordered G’s Thai dinner from our local in England from New Zealand using my mobile at no charge at all! Three aren’t paying me to say this…I just love their mobile service and wished I had changed over to them years agoooooooo.

What’s your New Year’s Resolution?  Where do you suggest I visit in your home county?

England Travel InspirationThe perfect day trip exploring Bedfordshire, England. Bedfordshire is the home of Afternoon Tea and and brimming with WW2 aviation history which you can visit at The Shuttleworth Collection and gorgeous stately homes. Click the link to read more about Bedfordshire and my travel tips for the county.

xx

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