Beautiful Burghley

The kids have been dispatched on their Duke of Edinburgh Award weekend and we have decided to be tourists in our own county for once.

Burghley House had th pleasure our company today. A bit disappointed ith the house itself to be honest. Very little of the place is open to the public. We started in the most magnificent kitchen, the walls and old scrubbed tables were adorned with highly polished copper cookware of all shapes and sizes. Some of the platters were so huge I am at a loss as to how they would have got them fro the kitchen to the dinning rooms. This was by far the best room in my opinion. the rest of it went rather downhill after that.

We almost went home without visiting the gardens we were so disappointed. I am so pleased we didn't we would have missed a treat, they were so much better than the actual house itself. We went into the sculpture part and browsed around the artwork some of which was interactive and really puzzling to work out how it had been made. Some of the art was huge. I particularly liked the metal face mask that looked solid from a distance but upon closer inspection you discover it is made from a number of small metal rectangles. I have picture of this but I loved the lake and the art in the water was a delight to photograph with the wildlife swimming around it.

At the end of the tour we entered the "Garden of Surprised". I was sorry we hadn't got small children with us, this really is a delightful place for them to play. It was magical and educational in parts, but most of all it was fun.

The gardens really did make up for the disappointment of the house, and I would highly recommend it.