Sandringham

I had heard a rumor around base that U.S. military gets in free to Sandringham, the Queen's country estate. It's less than an hour from our house, so I thought I'd head over and check it out one weekend. It turns out military is free with a paid admission, but since it was just me the lady was super nice and let me in free anyways - made my day!

The estate and house were beautiful, and so picturesque. It's crazy to think that the paths I was walking along have been walked by the Queen and Kate and William! :) I took the longer path up to the house and got to walk through some beautiful gardens (I bet they are even prettier when everything is in full bloom). The inside of the house was a pleasant surprise. Sometimes it seems like all these royal residences/castles look the same (to my untrained eye at least), but this house was comfortable, while still being a little fancy. There were helpful guides in each room who had little anecdotes to tell. The woman in the dining room where the royal family has Christmas dinner was talking about how Prince Philip always walks around in his slippers and loves to sit in the library - I love the little tidbits about the royal family, makes them seem more real to me, and I have a healthy obsession with all things royal since moving here. 

There was also a well done museum by the stables, with more information on the history of Sandringham, and I finished off with a walk along the stream back to the church and the exit! There were tons of little ducklings running around, it was such a great day, and I made it back to the car just before the rain hit, phew! 

Garden walk to the house

Sandringham House

Stables

Walk along the stream

Ducklings!

Beautiful grounds

The house was huge - I couldn't get it all in one picture, even from afar!

The house part 2 :)

I stopped at Denver windmill on the way home - nothing super exciting, but I like windmills :)

Woburn House & Gardens

A couple of weeks ago I needed to make some returns to IKEA, which is about 1.5 hours away (totally worth the drive though!). Since I wasn't actually shopping at IKEA this time, I figured I should make the trip a little more worthwhile and do something new/different on my way home. I plugged in my GPS and selected the closest tourist attraction to IKEA, which was Woburn House and Gardens. It was getting close to the end of the day so I only paid for the gardens entry, which was a good thing - I ended up spending a lot of time there!

The grounds for this "house" were HUGE, I had to drive 2 miles from the ticket point to the car park and gardens! The grounds are also a deer reserve, so there were deer along the way, as well as a ton of them right across from the gardens. It was crazy to see so many close up, and just roaming free!

The gardens themselves were beautiful, and so peaceful. It was a rainy day (as always), so I had the place mostly to myself. There were a couple of little "lakes", and tons of statues as well. It was definitely worth the little detour from IKEA! :) 

Deer reserve

Glasses sculpture

I loved this one :)

It's hard to take pictures when I'm by myself, luckily there weren't too many people around to witness my self picture taking. There was lots of running back and forth from the camera after I set it on self-timer!

Fast Food Heaven

I just wanted to share this awesome blog post from my friend Rachael, who I met at a temporary job in Cambridge. She was my boss at this job, but we quickly bonded over our "American-ness", love of reading, and more importantly, our love of chocolate.

I had the pleasure of taking Rachael and her husband to RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall a couple of weekends ago, showing them around, getting some American goodies at the commissary, and perhaps the highlight of the day - eating at Taco Bell. Rachael and Ben are here while he completes his PhD at one of the universities in Cambridge, and they don't have access to the base at all - no Post Office, no commissary, no BX, and no TACO BELL (I know, how can you live without that place?!). While it was fun to just spend time with both of them, it also made me realize how lucky I am while I am here. It's not always easy to be stationed here, especially while Thomas is gone, but I am so fortunate to have many American "luxuries" still available to me - York Peppermint Patties, Velveeta, and Del Monte green beans to name a few. ;) This was a good day with friends, and a great reminder that I don't have it half bad!

Click here to read Rachael's take on the day...she's an awesome writer!