December 10th Ashridge

I’m sitting in the coffee room of the castle typing this up on my phone sitting by the ancient windows overlooking the peaceful gardens which are still covered with lush green lawns and coifed bushes as the morning sun glistens and is sort of steaming off the light dew. It’s chilly outside but so beautiful that the short morning walk to breakfast through the castle courtyards was a refreshing wake up! I’m in my glory enjoying my favorite British tea with skim milk and hoping I can relay how I feel at this moment so I can grab it back at one of my darker or sadder moments. It’s peaceful and quiet and yet its screaming to me “Lila enjoy and appreciate this beautiful morning”. And so I am!

Pat and I took a complementary van into the town of Berkhamsted.  We toured and shopped on the High Street (mostly shopped!) and had a nice time finding a few items to bring back.  Many of the shops benefited something…liked the Red Cross, Cancer Research, Hospice, etc. so it was nice to shop there.  We saw a beautiful church and the ruins of a castle Henry VIII lived in.  Henry VIII and his daughters Mary and Elizabeth also lived on these grounds here at Ashridge.

We had a sandwich roll and cup of tea at Simmons Savory and Bakery Specialties!  It was nice!  We shopped some more and took great pics of lovely old buildings and then caught the shuttle back to Ashridge in time for the 5:00 tour of the castle.  Very cool castle and very cool chapel right on the site.  I am so glad they did that tour!

We had dinner here at the castle; yummy food and my favorite British Tea! And then it was time to sort of call it a night!  I uploaded lots of pics from past days the am about to do the same for this date!!!

Very cool trip!