Rutland Waters and Oakham
Sunday, June 10th
A lovely day in Rutland today! We had a bit of a lazy morning, and Kevin slept in, which was nice because he didn’t sleep too well last night, what with the time being weird and all. We went up to the main lodge to find internet, check mail and plot out our time.
We decided to go for a wander around our little area and see what there is to see. We found way to get down into the sheep pasture, where there was what turned out to be a loop trail all the way around the lake. We did not make it all the way around the lake, as it is a pretty good sized lake. The walk was lovely. There were sheep all around, and the wildflowers were really pretty. I took some back to the lodge, to try to press them. We shall see how they turn out.
We hadn’t brought anything with us, so when we were almost to Oakham, we decided to turn around. We headed back and had some lunch, then drove into Oakham. In Oakham, we wandered around for a couple hours, and visited the church, which was very pretty, and the castle, which since it is a Norman castle, looks a lot less like a castle so much as a sort of hall. The interesting thing about the castle is that every peer who visits Rutland is supposed to bring a horseshoe to hang on the wall of the castle. Well, some of them have gotten a bit carried away through the ages, so some of the horseshoes are like, 4 feet across, painted gold, and have crown-y things on top. We didn’t get to spend much time because, like everything else in Oakham, it was closed on Sunday (more on that in a bit) but they were setting up for some sort of ceremony thing, so we snuck in. There is also some sort of very posh school in Oakham, and one of the funnier sights of today was a little girl with a tennis racket playing wall ball off the wall of the (very old) church nave, which was right next to the castle, and the school.
Apparantly, Oakham believe strongly in the “Sunday = day of rest” doctrine. Nearly everything was closed today, and those few things that were open, like the grocery store, were only open until 4. Restaurants were closed, shops were closed, the whole 9 yards. Definitely the kind of place where if you need something, you’d better do it during the week. We will have to make time to go back during the week sometime, though, because there were a couple shops and a bakery that look interesting
When we got back, we went walking the other direction around the lake, mostly because we missed the turn and discovered a sort of nature preserve a little way down the road from the Hall. It turned out to contain more sheep, and a wood with a nice walking path. We turned back eventually, because the sky was getting increasingly grey, and dinner was calling. I’m typing this as the pasta boils, and after dinner we have plans to head up to the main building, find some internet and sit in the spa for a while.
![CIMG0549](http://www.kevinandsarah.theladyadventurer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/CIMG0549-1024x768.jpg)
The path through the woods. Did you know that horse chestnut trees, when you pull a leaf off, leave a mark on the branch on the shape of a horseshoe, complete with nail spots? True fact!
Yay!
Sarah and Kevin
Welcome to Europe. They take their Sunday’s seriously. Sounds like a lovely day.