The big adventure out of London - part 4

So you've probably noticed several reference to Belvoir. The small villages we were visiting are in the Vale of Belvoir surrounding Belvoir Castle. The castle is home to the Earl of Rutland. He and his family actually live there. And get this. The pronunciation is "Beever." You'll have to ask Nick why.

From the fox hunt we went to Woolsthorpe. There was a small church but it was closed. And the running joke for the weekend really got going. I found myself repeating the statement, "now, that looks old." A lot of these churches have gone through various changes over the years. The more changes usually means it has been around for a long time. Some of these go back to the 11th century.

In Woolsthorpe we stopped in the Chequer's Pub for a pint. Then we headed to Stamford stopping in a village that begins with "D" to see if the pub is open. This town is within walking distance of Harlaxton. The pub wasn't open.

Stamford is where Burghley House is located. Helene is having guests in a few weeks and is planning a trip to visit this estate. We thought we'd check it out. We knew the house wouldn't be open.

The scuplture garden was open though. Nick didn't care for much there. It is located in a wonderful garden with big old trees and a large resevoir.

Also, on the grounds of the estate are ancient deer. We saw a herd when we first drove up and didn't think to much of them.

On our way to look at the manor house closer we came up to another herd. These were much closer and have no free of humans.




The house itself is stunning from the outside.


Burghley House is a ways out of town so we headed back to Stamford. The town has several churches. Helene and Nick had seen them, it was late, and we were kind of churched out. So, of course, we headed to a pub. We had seen The Green Man pub on the way in and Helene's natural pub homing device kicked in and we were able to find it again.

It was St. Patrick's Day and a pub named The Green Man seemed appropriate. Our bartender was from Canada! We had Guinness and watched the football game on tv. Decided we were hungry and headed to the George Hotel.

The George Hotel is a fancy place with a very fancy restaurant. We went to the less expensive Garden Lounge restaurant. It was wonderful. We had a leisurely dinner then headed back to Harlaxton. There was no room available at the college on Saturday so I spent the night at the Ferrier Inn, a regular roadside motel. It was nice.