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Published: July 15th 2013
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Woolly says – I was so looking forward to my day, finally after months of emails and blogs I would get to meet my bestest friend Sion and his owners .
It had taken some planning but Woolly had been counting how many sleeps and had reached levels of hyper activity which required him to sit in the fridge to chill down.
Woolly says – I was ready by 6.30am with tusks shining and my new bandana tied neatly, getting Jo and Ian moving took on a whole new level. The drive was lovely as Ollie steamed through the green lush landscapes of England and although I was nervous it didn’t seem to take long to reach Attingham Park. As we pulled Ollie onto the car park I could see Sion jumping up and down in Gunter the Grunter (Suzy had been left home alone). With hugs and greetings we spent some time catching up, there seemed to be so much to talk about we had barely come up for air before the older members of the party took us in hand and headed for the tour of the house. We had all used our
National Trust membership but others were paying over their £9.45 GBP for viewing the house and gardens.
Attingham Park was built in 1785 for
Noel Hill, 1st Baron Berwick. A house had already existed on the site which had been called Tern Hall, but with money he received along with his title, he commissioned the architect George Steuart to design a new and grander house to be built around the original hall. Following the spending habits of his eldest son Thomas the house fell into huge debts and many items had to be sold at auction to keep the land and the hall from being lost for generations to come.
Woolly says – As we stood waiting for our tour to start I admired the columnated entrance and the huge windows, it looked pretty impressive. The guide explained a little of the history of the family before opening the wooden doors to allow us inside. The hall was a bit grey, with grey features and grey decoration, not my taste but apparently done so that when visitors arrived they were not impressed but had the ‘wow’ factor when reaching the next room, I hoped that it would be
equally captivating for us. I got confused at this point as instead of us arriving in the ‘Most impressive’ gallery we were led into a sitting room, the lady explained how much everything was costing to renovate before we moved to the next sitting room where she explained how much that had cost to renovate. As we moved from room to room each seemed to be a costing exercise, I saw Sion had a glazed look in his eyes, I dosed until Jo told me off for snoring to loudly.
The tour wasn’t the best and as we usually like to wander at our own speed it did seem to go on a little too much. Highlights that Woolly missed were the ceilings which were unique to each room and a large glass fronted case of stuffed tropical birds. When told that we could continue or go for a cup of tea the six of us raced like naughty children out of the house and straight into the tea room.
Woolly says – We were all in need of a drink and started to give our orders to the lady serving at the counter,
Jen and Jo ordered baked potatoes for Sion, me and them to share and were given a flying saucer to notify us of when they would be ready. Glenn went for the quiche and salad option while Ian felt that a scone would meet the mark, with drinks added on we were nearly £30.00 GBP down between us, having repeated our order several times we realised that we had actually completely ignored the serving system had gone straight to the front of the counter which explained why we hadn’t encountered trays, cold drinks, jams, scones and butters! I had to take Jo outside at this point as she started to giggle helplessly but our flying saucer when into flashing red and she was gulping for breathe as we collected the rest of the order. With everyone sorted we made it to a table.
The most pleasant of afternoons passed with talk of our travels, shared experiences of campsites and roads encountered and the highs and lows of travelling life. Woolly and Sion compared their stories and the trials and tribulations of having people that they needed to pander to, escort round castles, museums and other points of
interest and the need to avoid customs and toll roads as we all sat happily in the sun.
Woolly says – the day went so quickly and although our shared adventure was less than amazing, meeting my best friend was brilliant. As we took the road home I could only look forward to reading more of his travels and keeping in touch until we can arrange to meet again.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Great to see fellow TBers getting together...
but where is the group photo? Glad to see Sion and Woolly becoming best friends.