Victorian Audley End

We had a less than perfect outing to the nearby country home Audley End yesterday to see their Victorian Christmas. As you can see, the house itself is currently covered in scaffolding. We had a limited time to visit. Mike and I had reserved a car for a few hours to get some errands done. We finished early and so thought we'd spend the rest of the time on a nearby family outing. I initially thought we'd have all the time we'd need, as my girls' patience with trooping around country homes is limited. Well, when we arrived Anya decided she was desperately hungry. Once Anya has decided that, there is nothing to be done until that is taken care of. There was quite a crowd because of the special Christmas decorations and activities and only one guy working in the cafe. Forty-five minutes in line later, we were left with only 15-20 minutes before we had to leave to get the car back. Normally we could extend our time via iphone, except data coverage is TERRIBLE in England. Mike wasn't able to find anywhere where his phone would work. We were stuck with the time deadline.

We left Anya waiting in line from time to time to do a little wandering. I got to meet this reindeer up close and personal.

Camille and Mike did a little exploring of the pretty grounds.

They had quite a crew of people dressed up in Victorian clothing wandering the estate. They also had various stations where they focused on the Victorian era: games, music, hunting, history, etc. They also were staging an abbreviated rendition of a Christmas Carol and had Father Christmas (it's always Father Christmas here, not Santa). We had to skip all that due to our time restraints.

Maybe in part because they knew I was a little annoyed about the snack delay, my kids were on their best wandering and taking pictures behavior.

Fall season is coming to an end around here.

Skipping past all the servants' life areas to get a quick glance at the house.

My pictures inside didn't turn out, but we didn't see much of the house anyway. We got two rooms in before I realized we really had to get going if we were going to get the car back in time.

It's trips like these that make me happy to have the English Heritage pass. It's a year family pass to a number of historical sites. We've seen Dover Castle, Framlingham Castle, Bury St Edmunds Abbey and now Audley End with our pass. What's better, is we'll be able to easily come back and try again another day.