It was the last day of 2015. The Watsons decided to leave their cozy home and go explore in the woods an hour away in this freezing weather. WHY? Because they had been spending too many days inside eating, celebrating and playing board games and foosball. Everyone needed to get out!
To make a day trip successful they recommend the following:
Plan at least a day ahead--set the time to wake up and location to visit
Plan your meals--will you pack lunch or eat out?
Describe the day trip to a "boring" castle, estate house, field, mountain, whatever, in the best light possible to the kids.
Do not bring electronics if the drive is less than two hours--books, coloring, music, SNACKS are great. Well, that works for the Watson kids...but they are older and are very experienced travelers...and their parents are mean.
Okay, we are ready.
I was looking for a place visit that was part of the National Trust since we have the membership. And I found this place, Ashridge Estate, only about an hour and 15 minutes away drive from us. Nowadays, this estate is a huge property, with miles and miles of trails and a few ancient monuments. National Trust website gives us a few quick historical facts about it:
--Ashridge began life as a monastery founded by Edmund of Cornwall, nephew of Henry III, in 1283 to house a holy relic. The monks were known as Bonhommes or blue friars because of the colour of their robes. During the 13th century a deer park was established with the ancestors of the Fallow deer that still roam the estate today.
--Ashridge House was popular with Royalty from 1290 when Edward I held a parliament in the monastery. After the dissolution of the monasteries Ashridge became the property of Henry VIII and his children.
--Thomas Egerton, chancellor to Elizabeth I, bought the estate in 1604. He added domestic wings to the ancient monastic buildings.
--The Ashridge Estate has been adapted by its many owners over its history. Around 1760 Capability Brown, a famous landscape architect, worked on Ashridge's parkland creating the Golden Valley. His work was continued 50 years later during another phase of redevelopment by one of his students, Humphrey Repton.
--The Ashridge Estate passed sideways though inheritance to the Brownlow family in the 19th century. Under the third Earl Brownlow the estate developed and many famous people stayed at Ashridge House.
--During both World Wars the house was used to train and billet troops. In the Second World War it became a convalescent home for St Albans Hospital.
The funny thing is that we didn't really see the house or anything. We came here for the WOODS. This property is a very famous filming location. Some of the recent movies that were filmed here are "Maleficent", "Into The Woods", "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows" and "Les Mis".
We had our wellies and our winter gear, so we were plenty warm. And for the next three hours or so we plowed through mud, not caring how messy we'd get. That's what we call "FUN"!
The boys while still nice and clean with their almost sparkling clean wellies.
Katya is feeling the bitter cold wind. It got a lot warmer once we entered the thicker woods.
Could we stay here for a while?
Finding a walking stick was part of the fun.
Awesome forest, even in the wintertime?
The forest is awesome, the trees are awesome, the mud is awesome. Everything is awesome!
These two were trying to find the deepest mud possible.
Katya was not too far behind.
Mark got stuck once. And then he fell down or something and mud got into his eye. That was not funny;).
Yay! She let me give her a hug! Little hedgehog Katya who really values her personal space:)). Gotta take what I can get and squish her.
Robert was indeed on this outing, but somehow managed to stay behind the camera the whole time.
One great thing--when we were driving home, all kids agreed that this day trip turned out way better than they thought it would be. Score!
Lyana.
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