Tea with the Queen

Not to far from King's Lynn is Sandringham Estate.  It is the much-loved country home of Her Majesty The Queen.  The "house" is set in 59 acres of gardens in the heart of 20,000 acres.  There have been 4 generations of British monarches living here since 1862.  HM The Queen opened the house to the public in her Silver Jubilee year in 1977.

A friend of mine and I took what turned out to be a really nice Saturday to tour the house and it's grounds.  And it just so happened that it was the last weekend that the house was opened before it closed to prepare for when The Queen comes.  She spends her Christmas here every year.

Walking up to the house we noticed that the shades were all pulled down.  At least they were on the side that we had walked up, which is the side in the picture above.  We started to wonder if the house was even open.  Thankfully it was.  This part of the house is where Prince Charles stays when he is here, so I'm sure that is the reason the shades were pulled.

You enter the house from the back...or the front.  Not really sure which side they would consider the front.  Front or back, the entrance is pictured above.  You actually only get to tour about 4 or so rooms.  And unfortunately, you are not allowed to take any pictures on the inside.  Of course the inside was gorgeous.  There was a lot of history in those rooms, as you can imagine.  What surprised me the most was there was a lot of Oriental items throughout the different rooms.

In honestly didn't take very long to go through all the rooms. But we were able to see the stairs in Prince Charles part of the house.  There were several pictures of horses on the wall heading up the stairs, but that's really all we could see.

The grounds around the house are amazing.  You could spend all day just walking around.  And I think that's what a lot of people do.  We walked around for awhile and then decided to head into museum.  You actually spend a lot more time in the museum then you do the house.  There were a lot of cars on displays and different things about the royal family and their time at Sandringham. 

There is one room in the museum that, well, to be honest, kind of freaked me out a little bit.  It was a room full of mounted animal heads.  You walk into the room and almost come eye to eye with a rhino head.  There were all sorts of different animal heads on all four of the walls.  Apparently they have all been shot by different members of the royal family throughout the 4 generations.

Next to the museum is a little tea shop where we stop to have a cup of tea and some cake.  So here I am having tea with the Queen!  Or at least that's what I'm going to tell people I did.

Just outside of the estate's miain grounds is the Church of St. Mary Magdalene.

I am told that the Queen walks here to celebrate Christmas every year.  You can tour the church, but again, you can't take pictures inside.  It is beautiful inside, but smaller than I thought it would be.  The chruch is only open in the winter months for service.

You can still visit the grounds of Sandringham outside of the 59 acres that the house is on all year long.  There is a country park with nature trials, as well as a restaurant, gift shop and plant centre.

If you are ever in the Norfolk area of England, I highly recommend coming here.  It is well worth the visit. And if you do come, make sure you stop by the main gates and get your picture taken out front!

Bonfire Night

Remember, Remember the fifth of November.

Every November the 5th is Bonfire Night in the UK.  Towns put on big bonfires and have firework displays.  In America, our big fireworks display is on July 4th where we celebrate our freedom and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  In the UK, bonfire night is a celebration of an execution of a man who tried to blow up Parliament and King James I. 

For my first bonfire night I went up to Hunstanton, which is on the coast of the North Sea.  They were putting on a little festival for the occassion on the cliffs (which made for a chilly evening, but with a scarf and hat, it was fine).  They had a few rides and of course several food vendors.  However, this festival was about half the size of one you would find in America.

Normally, I don't do rides at these things.  When I was a kid, my Dad never let me go on the rides because he thought they were unsafe.  While I didn't understand that then, I totally agree now!  However, I love carosels, so since they had one, I had to ride it!

Off to the side of the rides and food they had a big area fenced off with a rather large pile of wood in the middle for the bonfire.  What I didn't notice until after the fire had been lit was that there was stuffed man on the pile.  Yes, every year the Birtish burn a man in effigy.  Here is one of the photos that I was able to get of the "guy" as the fire reached him.  Not the best photo, but hopefully you can make it out.

A bit of a history lesson as to why they do this every November 5th. 

After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had been persecuted hoped that her successor, Jame I, would be more tolerant of the religion.  That didn't happen.  And because that didn't happen, 13 young men thought a violent action would be the answer.

In what became known as the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, these 13 young men got ahold of 36 barrels of gunpowder and stored them in a cellar, just under the House of Lords.  Their plan was to kill the King, maybe the Prince of Wales and the Members of Parliament.

At some point, a few of the young men started having second thoughts about the plan.  They were worried about innocent people being hurt or killed.  Rumor has it that one of them wrote a letter to a friend, warning him to stay away from Parliament.  The warning letter some how reached the King.

The King sent his men out to stop this from happening.  In the early hours of November 5th, one of the young men, Guy Fawkes, was found in the cellar of the Parilament with the 36 barrels of gunpowder.  Guy was caught, tortured and executed.

When the Plot was foiled, bonfires were set alight to celebrate the safety of the King.

As a result of The Gunpowder Plot the reigning monarch only enters Parliament once a year on what is called "the State Opening of Parliament."  Prior to the Opening, the Yeomen of the Guard searches the cellars of the Palace of Westminster.  This is still praticed today.

Followed by the bonfire are the fireworks.  And of course the ooh's and aww's.

Castle Rising

I have finally been to my first castle! (Not counting the ones in Disney.)  Castle Rising is about 10, 15 minutes away from where I am staying.  I had actually driven by it once before and didn't realize it.  It is set back a little ways from the road and is surrounded by what use to be a defensive mound.  So, unless you know it's there, it's very easily missed.

I went on a really sunny Saturday, which is probably going to be much harder to come by here in the future.  It was a great day to just wonder around the castle and it's grounds.  There were only a handful of people there that day, so I was able to get a really good look at the place.  It was really neat to go around and think about all the things that had gone there in it's history (it was built around 1140).  And the grounds around the castle are beautiful.

Castle Rising isn't a very large castle...actually they describe it as a stone keep.   And the center of it no longer has a roof...or floors for that matter. When you are there you can make out where the floor use to be, although I don't know how clear that comes across in these pictures.

Now for a little information about Castle Rising.  The castle and defensive mound were originally half their current size.  The present appearence is the result of a major building program of the late 12th or 13th century.



As I said earlier, it was built around 1140.  In the more than 870 years since it has been built it has served as a hunting lodge, royal residence, a mint producing pennies for King Stephen and even housed a mental patient.

The famous period for the castle was when it came to the mother of Edward III, Queen Isabella, following her part in the murder of her husband Edward II.  She was not a prisoner here, but led life like a dowager Queen.  She is said to have died here.

There's not a whole lot more to talk about without sounding like a history book.  It's a great place to bring your family and lots of room for kids to run around.  While this was my first visit there, I'm sure it won't be my last.  Now for some more pictures.