Waddesdon Manor

“It's up to you how you waste your time and money. I'm staying here to read: life's too short.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón : The Shadow of the Wind
Began our trek across to Buckinghamshire this morning, I’ve booked a time slot to visit Waddesdon Manor, a National Trust property near Bicester which houses some treasures of the Rothschild family. K1 had her morning swim first, while I threw everything in the car for our overnight stay at Weston on Green. It’s been a long time since I’ve travelled this route so I was unsure about timing, particularly around Oxford. Added to that the car’s SatNav is hopelessly out of date, I checked online to see if there were any updates available but of course their updates didn’t even run the promised length of time from manufacture. So then I read up on Android Auto and Google Maps and thought I’d give it a go. Bit of a faff getting the phone paired and Android Auto on the car menu, but when done there’s a USB port to plug the phone in tucked away under the central console and the phone info is projected onto the built in SatNav screen. Even the voice prompts are more user friendly than the built-in SatNav. All worked well and we arrived in the nick of time to check in for our house visit. Very impressive. Equally impressive overnight at the hotel, who brought out a lovely dessert plate with 'Happy Birthday' in chocolate copperplate script on the plate for K1 (the receptionist had asked if it was a special occasion visit), a fitting end to a beautiful birthday meal in the Grade II Listed building.