After Emma and I survived a weekend break to Yorkshire together last month, we decided that we had to do it ago so a month later we were packing our bags for a weekend break to Gloucestershire. After thinking about Paris (mainly to eat copious amounts of gluten free chocolate eclairs) we decided to stay in a castle in England instead and the one that tickled our fancy was Thornbury Castle in Gloucestershire.
Picking up Emma on a Saturday morning at Bicester station, we headed towards Gloucestershire but bumped into Blenheim Palace on the way. What’s a kiwi girl to do but to stop and do a tour around a Palace.
Blenheim Palace is super popular with the crowds and it can be rather busy on a saturday morning but the former home to Winston Churchill has the wow factor. After doing part of a tour we learnt some fun facts about the Palace including that some of the furniture is actually from the Palace of Versailles.
The gardens are just glorious and there were a few bosoms and naked bottoms to admire. I wonder how many squats she does to get that rock hard bottom?
After working up an appetite (I’m always thinking about my next meal), I decided to buy two gluten free cakes for research purposes – they were okay. I let the calories escape by cutting the coconut macaroon in half. They do gluten free panini’s however they were sold out by the time we arrived. While Emma was ordering her lunch a big scary pheasant decided to come and visit the table; remember I’m afraid of birds so there were squeals!
As we had finished our tour of Blenheim Palace it seemed only right to go and pay our respects to Winston Churchill; let’s just say this was easier said than done. The signage is pants and finding Winston was like a game of hide and seek (which he was winning!) and the 3G coverage is pants also along with the signage. Anyway Winston is buried in St Martin’s Church in Bladon (OX20 1RS), just in case you get into the same game of hide and seek with him that we did. There is no parking by the church so sometimes you need to break the rules!
Back in the smurf mobile we were racing towards Gloucestershire to visit Sudeley Castle, the burial place of King Henry VIII final wife, Catherine Parr. The castle is the dubbed the most romantic castle in England and it’s just so pretty; possibly one of my favourites now and I would highly recommend visiting if you are in the area.
Catherine Parr was buried in the chapel within the grounds; a beautiful resting place for a Queen of England and the only Queen to be buried in a private castle.
Next stop was our castle for the night; Thornbury Castle, a luxury tudor castle hotel. As we were driving to Thornbury we noticed a sign for Berkeley Castle so we added that to our castle hunting list for Sunday morning. Now how cool was our castle for the night. Pretty fancy!
This was our room where Emma and I were playing princesses for the night. We had the lovely Woodstock room which had the most perfect four poster bed that was incredible for belly flopping on! That’s me sipping sherry in my New Zealand made slippers. See mummy, I do listen to you – I took my slippers just in case the castle was cold!
Emma was super organised and found us a great place for our gluten free dinner, Hawkes House. After spending all day castle hunting, I was hungry so a piece of steak inside a bun with chips was called for! These guys know how to do gluten free and the chef was really hot; nothing like a hot chef to spice up dinner.
After a brekkie fit for a princess and walk in the gardens, it was time to check out (much to our horror as we didn’t want to leave however we did a little bit of snooping in the other bedrooms first). There was a slight incident when leaving Thornbury Castle; my car is quite small and Emma and I were chatting, I wasn’t really concentrating on where I was going and almost drove through the entrance for the tudor gardens. Needless to say there were a lot of giggles. A seat belt and crash helmet are required if you are in the passenger seat when I’m driving!
So our next stop was Berkeley Castle. Ever heard of it; nope neither had we. We were lucky to join a tour where the guide was fabulous, entertaining and made me smile when dealing with a know it all in our tour group. The castle has remained in the same family for nine centuries; the murder of King Edward II took place here in 1327 and Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream was written for a Berkeley family wedding; this castle holds a lot of history within it’s walls.
There is also a butterfly house at Berkeley Castle, my first time ever popping inside one. Apologies Emma for embarrassing you with all my squealing!
After refuelling with a drink and an ice cream (it was amazing weather last weekend, thank you castle gods!) we jumped back in the smurf mobile and headed to the National Trust property Newark Park. The stately home wasn’t the grandest that we had visited during the weekend but the location just gave us the most incredible views over Gloucestershire. It was lovely to sit in the sunshine and enjoy a peppermint tea (apparently we ordered the only two peppermint teas of the summer; we are total hippies!).
So as another great weekend drew to a close, I dropped Emma back to Bicester and I carried on home to Bedfordshire. Mr Kiwi and G are both breathing a sigh of relief as that’s four properties that they didn’t get dragged along too.
What surprised me the most from the weekend is just how glorious Gloucestershire is and how many fabulous castles there are still to discover in England. England holds many secrets that I’m totally going to hunt out in the future.
I’m keen to hear about any other castles that you would recommend visiting in England, especially the secret castles that aren’t on the tourist trail.
xx
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