1 year, 33 days since the start of the 1st lock down in March 2020.
We had planned a day out for today as I had managed to book tickets for the National Trusts Cliveden gardens. It was pretty nippy again and a bit overcast but it got sunnier as we approached. It was so busy that we had to park in the auxiliary parking area of a field. I’ve never been to Cliveden before and I was really impressed. The estate covers a very large area and the house in the centre is now a very upmarket country house hotel although in non Covid times there are guided tours for NT members on certain days.
We walked the grounds, formal gardens and then down some steep steps and along the river Thames past Mapledurham lock. It was a lovely day, we saw spring flowers and many butterflies including orange tips and Peacocks. We found time to stop for a coffee and cake during our visit and watched a red kite swoop down very low in the Parterre gardens.
As the cafes were busy we decided to find lunch elsewhere. I noticed that we were not that far from the little town of Marlow that I had vague recollections of from childhood. We drove there and found a parking space easily and it was free. We ‘bigged up’ on a £3 meal deal from Sainsbury’s ate it outside in a little park although it was quite nippy withe odd spot of rain.
A point of interest was that we walked onto the bridge across the Thames and read a plaque explaining that the Marlow bridge (opened in 1832) is one of only two surviving suspension bridges designed by William Tierny Clark and the other is in Budapest which is on our ‘to visit’ list whenever we can eventually start to travel again.
A great day and I had a rapid re-familiarisation exercise with motorway driving on the M25 on the way back!
