Cambridge Getaway :: Wimpole Estate

The 8th April is Baby F's birthday and we celebrated by having a party with a bouncy castle with family and friends the day before, and then went to Brighton on his actual birthday to go to the Build-A-Bear factory and the pier. He absolutely loved the rides on the pier and Mr DT took him round the big soft play at the end too - he had such a brilliant day! 

The 13th April is my Dad's birthday and this year was a rather big number so my family had all clubbed together and we'd arrange a long weekend away to Cambridge. The car travel there was really pretty as all of the Rape flowers were in full bloom so the fields along the motorway were bright yellow and glowing. 

We are all National Trust members and it is always worth us trying to find a National Trust property or location when we travel somewhere - we can meet there en masse having all left different houses, stop to stretch our legs and set the children free (like dogs they need a run around!), the food is usually really nice, there's free parking.... I would recommend being a member if you aren't and have little ones. We've found it fairly invaluable and you only need to visit a few places a year to make the yearly membership worthwhile and cost effective. They aren't sponsoring this blog post by the way - I just think we are lucky to have these places to visit.

On the way to our holiday home we stopped at the Wimpole Estate, which is in Cambridgeshire so we were pretty much on the doorstep. It was a lovely place to visit, the little ones especially loved the rare breeds farm with all of the pigs, sheep, horses, tractors... Look at the little piglets! So sweet. 

It's a huge estate with all sorts of sections to it. You can go around the house, although because we had smalls with us it was a bit of a whistlestop tour. Small kids just don't appreciate the fine vintage wallpaper, lush carpets and expensive glass or porcelain ornaments. They don't ogle pretty ceilings and it can be quite stressful trying to explain to them that they aren't allowed to sit and bounce on the overstuffed settees (with the strategically placed thistle head). However, there was a lady in the ballroom type room playing the piano which they loved, a very musical bunch we have in our family. Funnily enough, Baby F watches a lot of a programme called Tractor Tom (one of the less strange children's programmes) and in one of his favourite episodes the animals and vehicles put on a musical performance - one of the songs of choice being The Blue Danube. Without us saying anything this was the song the pianist chose to play for our kids, and Baby F sang along!! It was an amazing moment, dancing around on the polished wooden floor humming The Blue Danube in a huge posh house whilst it's played live on the grand piano. 

There's quite a lot of 'below stairs' open as well which was fascinating - especially the special pantry with all of the boxes of special ingredients and giant tea storage trolleys on wheels, with the tram tracks built into the stone floor. 

Personally, I love a walled garden and this place had a spectacular one! If we lived closer we would definitely be coming here often to see how it changes through the seasons. In April the Tulips were out and there were so many different varieties! It's amazing how much colour is in a garden throughout the year, not just in summer. 

Look at this amazing greenhouse!! Oh to have a space like this - not just for growing plants in, but also for sitting and stitching in! The light would be amazing, it would usually be fairly warm, you could get comfy in there on a soft chair, surrounded by your plants, with a cup of something delicious, looking out at the colours in these amazing borders outside. One half outside of the greenhouse (split by a door in the middle) was a 'hot' bed with red and orange and burgundy, and the other half was more of a 'cool' bed I suppose with purples, pinks and whites. There would be no end of inspiration to live in and around a garden like this. Although I would also need at least one gardener to come with it....I'm a keen amateur gardener but I'm not that keen. 

The weather wasn't particularly amazing on our trip around Wimpole and we were sort of rained off in the end I think so headed off to our holiday home and to have an early night in. 

We didn't have any particular plans for our weekend, it was very much a go with the flow so we thought we'd spend a little bit of time wandering around Cambridge itself on the following day. 

It is a very pretty place and if you are a lover of architecture it would be a lovely place to go for a mooch. I did take some photographs of the chimneys myself. What struck me was the number of posters put up everywhere - any time there was a spare bit of railing there'd be loads of brightly coloured posters tied on which made for an interesting patchwork effect.  

After looking around the market, stopping for coffee, checking out the mathematical bridge and deciding that punting was slightly out of our budget, we plumped instead for searching for Giraffes around the town, ticking them off on the Giraffe map. We also popped in to the Zoological museum which was basically lots of taxidermy or trays of shells, or animal skeletons that Baby F was not at all impressed with so we headed back to the holiday home on the bus so that he could have a nap (fractious didn't really cover it!).

The Giraffe trail is there until the 2nd June so there's still time to go and work your way around the map if you are more local than us. I think we did pretty well but didn't go to visit any outliers. There were lots in the main shopping centre though! It's in support of the charity, Break, and you can see more about it here.