For our last day in Norfolk, we started out with a visit to Pensthorpe Nature Reserve, a 700-acre woodland, bird sanctuary and gardens, outside Fakenham.
What we were not expecting was how many water birds we would find there and how friendly they would be.
As we made our way to the Piet Oudolf planted Millennium Garden with its Monet-inspired bridge, we were forced to walk down paths filled with assorted geese and ducks and ducklings. All very charming and natural.
There are four gardens at this reserve – a Habitat Garden, Infinity Garden, Wave Garden and the Millennium Garden. People on the tour, especially loved the Wave Garden, but they also loved walking beside the lake with the views frames by flower borders filled with irises and reed grasses.
The Wave Garden, designed by Julie Toll, a multiple medal winner at Chelsea, features yew hedging planted in rolling, wave patterns with art installations to add interest here and there.
From Pensthorpe, we skipped over to Holkham Hall, one of the grand stately homes of England, where we enjoyed a lunch break in the walled gardens, freshly restored over the past seven years.
The house and grounds are fantastic, but our visit was made all the more pleasant by the first-class customer service we received, being greeted when we arrived by a friendly staffer, Jan, who then showed us where we could buy a picnic lunch and then escorted us to where we could get a fun ride on a golf cart shuttle down to the Walled Garden, thus saving our legs and also giving us a splendid view of the estate and house from a distance.
From Holkham, we moved next to Sandringham, one of the Queen’s “holiday cottages” – are you kidding? Yes, that is how they described it – and we were lucky enough to get a guided tour of the garden by the estate’s head gardener.
Inside the house, we were surprised to be allowed into rooms that the royal family regularly uses, including several of the sitting rooms and living areas as well as the dining room. Sorry, we weren’t allowed to take photographs.
We also wandered up to the church where the royal family go every Christmas, the one where they pose for all their photographs. It was a great combination of garden visit and insight into how the royals live in their quiet, relaxed time in the winter time.
From Sandringham, we moved next to Cambridge, where we went for dinner at the Watermill down by the Cam followed by a leisurely walk back to our centrally located hotel with a stop on the way at The Mill for nightcaps and more laughter.
The next day, we spent time exploring Cambridge and its famous sites, especial King’s College and some of the other colleges, before heading off to London for the Chelsea Flower Show.
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