No, I’m not being crass. Today we drove a couple of hours out to the delightful historic town of Lacock (pronounced “Laycock” – not much less rude sounding, is it?) in the county of Wiltshire. Yes, in case you’re wondering this was another National Trust related trip. I think we’re going to enjoy this…

Lacock is a small town dating back to the 13th century. According to the local tourist pamphlets and the short Wikipedia article (worth a quick scan) a number of famous films have had scenes shot in and around the town – including a couple of the Harry Potter series and the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. I can certainly see why this would be a popular choice for film crews – it’s quite beautiful.

I managed to take a number of cool photos – but here’s the real story – on a Saturday during summer, cars and people everywhere.

All the cars detract from the atmosphere a little, but you still get an excellent sense for how the town once was… Especially once you get into the National Trust Abbey and gardens – car free and wonderful… But let’s not lose sight of the fact that we’re talking about a strikingly attractive town here.. Here’s a nicer photo to bring you back into the picture..

Aah, that’s better…

Here’s a link to the nicer of the photos we took.

After wandering through the gardens and the Abbey we were in desperate need of a cuppa. Thank heavens for the local tea rooms that did a mean Cream Tea (tea, scones, strawberry jam and all-fat clotted cream).

Mmmm.

A delightful day out.

In other news.. I’m off to Germany for work on Monday – a couple of meetings will take place that could determine what I’m doing next year. Hmmm…  (CH, yes we’ll talk).  Melbourne-related talk is getting a lot of airtime in the Polli house at the moment – it’s all very exciting.

Having made the decision to return to Australia it could be very easy for us to spend the next six months wishing we were already back home and not making the most of our remaining time in the UK. Just as I was starting to get a little bit that way – Olivia came up with a brilliant idea – “making the most of our remaining time in the UK” – pure genius.. So, having neglected most of the UK in our travels to this point, we’ve decided to try and squeeze as much as we can out of England before we head home.

To this end we went for a bit of a drive on Saturday … and saw STONEHENGE (…yes, where the demons dwell for all you Spinal Tap fans)… It was an extremely cool thing to see. There were a number of people there but the monument is set up such that everyone can get a great look without having a million people in your way. I was thrilled to have been there..

Another hour further west from Stonehenge is the Stourhead estate. Armed with our newly acquired National Trust memberships (Andrea, you’ll be proud) we had a wander through the historic 18th century house – most wonderful library I’ve ever seen, and the surrounding gardens which were both massive and beautiful.

Weather permitting – we’re aiming to do a hell of a lot of trips like this over the next few months. I’m actually quite excited about it all. Looking through the National Trust handbook there’s an awful lot of stunningly beautiful places that we can now get into for free..

Here are links to STONEHENGE PHOTOS and STOURHEAD PHOTOS

The following photo of “The Butt of Sherry” pub in Mere, Wiltshire has nothing to do with the National Trust and is included for the purpose of amusement only given its silly name.