We headed for Bletchley Park but were sidetracked when we saw a National Trust sign to Wimpole Hall and Gardens. There was so much more there than we first realised. We were there before the house (hall) opened so we went for a walk to see the walled garden, then on to the parterre garden, both very attractive. Within the walled garden, there were vegetables growing that will be provided to the onsite restaurant. The hall was built between 1640 and 1686 and had many owners, one of them being Elsie, daughter of Rudyard Kipling. As we love looking at libraries, especially old ones, we were really pleased when we saw the Book Room and Library. There is a collection of about 10,000 books in the 2 rooms. In 2010, there was was extensive water damage to the books caused by heavy snow and downpour. Every page of every book was inspected and repairs to the books were only completed last year.
We got back on track, sort of, but stopped at Sharpenhoe Clappers, an ancient woodland with fantastic views and walked in the nice clean air for about an hour. By then, we had no chance of getting to Bletchley Park.
We started looking for a bed from about 4:30. We thought we’d done very well when we stopped in a village, found a pub with 2 double rooms and booked and paid for them. Lesson well learnt. We didn’t look at the room, assuming that the rooms were ok. When we took our stuff up to the rooms, opened the doors and were stopped in our tracks when we saw that the beds were still unmade from the last occupants, towels were still on the floor and it was obvious that previous occupants took no notice of the no smoking signs. We went back to the bar and told them that we were not happy to stay there and that we’d like a refund. The staff understood and we moved on. We tried other pubs and ended up at a big chain hotel, who also had nothing. Gary & Rick using the hotel’s wifi for 40 mins (when it cut out), we were no closer to finding accommodation. Last resort was to ring the Travelodge central booking to find out the nearest Travelodge with 2 rooms. We ended up booking one about 30 miles away, here at Rushden. We stopped on the way and bought stuff for a room picnic and for breakfast and finally got here just after 8 pm.
Bletchley Park tomorrow and hopefully it will be easier to find beds tomorrow night.
