On a recent Sunday I went with my wonderful SO M to meet Gill, one of our friends from our group – Lynx Ladies, at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire which was used for both the famous TV series and also the 2008 film.
It is sunny so we start with coffees in the courtyard, I need to nip to the ladies then after going through the ticket office we walk through the walled garden down to the Atlas fountain, pausing to take some pictures in one of the arbours. There are plenty of people about, including families with grand parents, young couples pushing buggies, Japanese tourists.
Skirting the lake we saunter to the Temple of the Winds and admire the views.
Looping through the woods we reach the boathouse café, where we have lunch on the decking by the water. Neither visitors nor staff have paid us any attention. We head up the hill to the house.
At the top of the entrance stairs we are greeted by a guide who explains about the seven Dukes whose pictures hang above our heads. As she finishes she says “I think you are lovely, you are both lovely and brave and its wonderful” and hugs first me and then Gill, who I think is even more surprised than me. It left me with a warm glow.
We continue our tour and in each room the guides, all volunteers, are helpful, answering our questions and pointing out the highlights, and not showing any signs of recognition. A couple of them pop up in several rooms, I think because they are short staffed. One lady pushes the Christmas lights inside the house and it does sound quite magical (might make a good group outing Carole/ Teresa?). One younger chap is almost puppy like in his enthusiasm to tell us about the rooms he is covering.
We round off with tea and cakes outside another cafeteria, before saying our goodbyes. A lovely day out with our friend.
