Waddesdon

A bit more jive and cha cha cha started the week and dancing to a band at Harry's work Christmas party finished the very cold working week. More snow over the country, though just a dusting in Bristol - enough to form ice, not enough for building a snow man but enough to discourage even the heartiest of cyclists. On the Saturday we went over to Milton Keynes (I'd found a good deal at a hotel and since it is Harry's birthday on Monday we thought we would have another treat). The jacuzzi was broken - disappointed we were - but we swam in the pool, sweated in the sauna, ate lots of food, played pool on a mini table which was just my size, and  danced another night away (limping at work the next week I explained to concerned workmates that I had pulled a muscle when we gatecrashed a disco - where was the sympathy?).  On the Sunday we went to Waddesdon Manor.  This had huge potential as a place to go to. Its the home of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (of the banking dynasty who owned the place in Nice we went to visit) and was built to display his collection of art, collectibles etc.  The house is in the area once known as Rothschildshire (really Buckinghamshire) due to all the Barons rellies buying up or building around the place.  We thought we could spend all day there and we did because it was busy and it was a timed ticket to the house.  It was a magnificent building from the outside surrounded by a garden (some of it decked out for Christmas), a stable and a plant centre (which included a Christmas food fair - chutneys, crackers, cakes, coffee and sweets) and an aviary (a haven for some fairly endangered species who would have had to acclimatise quickly to the English weather). We wandered the around in all sorts of weather, at times watching the fog roll in and other times enjoying the faint warmth of the winter sun.  Inside the rooms were decorated with trees and lights but we were only allowed in a few of the rooms (or at least two or three of them - the others we were allowed to peep through the doorway) - so we had difficulty seeing most of the things in the room.  Although owned by the National Trust the Manor is run by a family charitable trust chaired by the present Lord Rothschild.  Perhaps that explains the small number of 'public' rooms.