Some days being an indoor reader type of person all gets too much and a step away from social media is needed, especially in these time of President Trump. Luckily for Christmas my gorgeous OH bought us a family membership for the National Trust so that me and the kids can stomp our way around the great outdoors. We've been members on and off for several years so this year I'm making a conscious effort to visit places that we have never seen before rather than keep returning to our regular stomping grounds.
So a couple of Sunday's ago on a very wet British winter day, I persuaded the family to come for a trek in the great outdoors and never having been there before headed to Stowe in Buckinghamshire. Of course it being so wet and cold I had to bribe the kids..... with a picnic of all things before any walking commenced. This is them getting soaked and eating soggy sandwiches!!
The car park at Stowe is about a 10 minute walk from the start of the gardens however they do have little golf carts that take you to and fro if you don't want to walk. There is a cafe and visitor area with toilets, called the New Inn which is right by the car park. We did walk (at least there) but lots of people did make use of the shuttle. We started out our walk on Peggs Terrace and headed for the Temple of Venus:
Then carried on along the same path around the Eleven Acre Lake. Like I say the weather was pretty horrific and what to do in this country apart from this?!
Makes for some nice wet and muddy kids I tell ya!! We carried on puddle jumping around by the Statue of Queen Caroline and back along the other side of the Lake to the Rotunda:
From there we walked up the hill to the house:
The house is not part of the National Trust but they do have a small visitor centre with more toilets and a cafe. You can buy tickets to the house but we were only there for the rain so I'm not sure how much they were. The house is also part of Stowe school which looks completely amazing! O would like us to send her there but at £32,000 a year it would appear to be slightly out of our price range unfortunately. After a quick toilet stop and a look around the shop, we headed back out in to the rain and down towards Captain Grenville's Column to the Grotto.
I thought that the gotto was really creepy (cold, dark and damp) so obviously the kids loved it and were trying their hardest to scare me!!
Normally you can walk through the Grotto and out the other side but they were doing some restoration work so we walked back the way that we came round the back of the Grotto and then down to the Temple of British Worthies:
I loved this statue and to my amazement there was even a woman there (Elizabeth I)! Can't wait to go back on a Summer's day to read them all thoroughly without rain dripping down my neck!! We then walked down towards the Wooden Bridge and across to the Palladian Bridge:
From there we walked via the Temple of Friendship and back to the Bell Gate. Littlest was getting tired by then so we got the golf cart back to the visitors centre whilst the big boys walked back. OH mapped it out afterwards and thinks that we walked just over 3 miles. Although there were a couple of hills it was a very easy walk with even paths (apart from puddles) and even the littlest could've made it back to the visitors centre if we'd have made him!
A family ticket is £31 or they sell single parent tickets for 1 adult and up to 3 children for £18.60. Had it not have been for the incessant rain we could've happily spent all day here and I'm sure we will again in the Summer. For opening times please see the National Trust website.
This is not a sponsored post, I just love being a member and it's always nice to see how other families make the most of their day!!
