Introduction
R and I took a day trip to Waddesdon Manor, a large 19th century stately home near Aylesbury. Actually, ‘home’ isn’t quite right: it was built for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild specifically to display his art collection. It’s kind of a cross between a house and a gallery.
They offer a shuttle bus service from the nearest station, but it only runs once per day each way. We had to get up fairly early: two buses to Aylesbury, then train to Aylesbury Vale Parkway where the shuttle picks up.
Outside
You have to book a timed ticket to tour the house. Before the time came up, we took a quick look around the gardens. These are impressive and extensive - we didn’t really have a chance to see everything.
Inside
The house inside is quite impressive and there’s a lot of art of various kinds – paintings, pottery, fancy furniture, crockery, whatever. I didn’t find most of it very impressive individually (there were a few nice paintings and I liked the furniture), but it is interesting in situ.
After the tour we had afternoon tea in the restaurant. It was R’s idea to have afternoon tea instead of lunch and she made a good call; it was delicious.
Outside again
We didn’t have very long before the only shuttle bus back, but we did have another quick look around some of the gardens.
