Stourhead. 11 – 13 May 2018
It was just under an hour to get here from Amesbury on a Friday afternoon - 27 miles down the A303 so not too bad a time.
Easy site to get to. The book in though is a little way away from the actual site at the ticket office for the gardens and house.
A walk around the gardens before checking out the pub. Lovely walk. We took the easy route but still saw many of the sights such as the grotto and pavillion.
Little did we know that this weekend Stourhead is host to a triathlon! Thoughts of a quiet restful weekend go out the window. However we haven’t heard anything apart from when we went to visit the house.
The house didn’t hold much interest for Mike or me. There is are plenty of paintings but that is about all to captivate. Of course thert is the architecture and the library stained glass window is something to behold especially when the sun is shining through. Oh, and the house does hold the largest collection of Chippendale furniture (Chippendale the younger that is).We took a drive out to Wincanton and Gillingham but didn’t stop as the town didn’t look as there was much there. We did shop in Morrison’s though and found some sweet corn relish that is proving very difficult to buy these days. (and an excellent Lupin)
A meal at the pub on Saturday evening. Not impressed. I had salmon with Jasmine rice. The rice was so over cooked it was really stodgy. The salmon was ok although I think it could have been cooked a little longer. Mike had steak which was ok but the chips weren’t anything to write home about. We did mention about the rice and the waitress did ask when she took the plates away but we were still charged the full about. We didn't leave a tip. Ah well. You live and learn.
Sunday saw many cars arriving for the triathlon. Yesterday we were asked if we were leaving early as they had to cordon off the car park (our exit) for a short while. We don’t do early leaving so that is fine.
