Buckingham

Although I was planning a lazy day of doing very little, I suggested to Sophie we go out somewhere in the afternoon. She didn't come up with any ideas, so I secretly decided to take her to Buckingham, a small market town that neither of us had been to.

All the way I wound her up as to where we were going. She was worried it would be "educational" or yet another garden centre, but I hoped she'd like Buckingham as I heard it had lots of little individual shops, very much like Oakham, Uppingham and Market Harborough.

It took us about 45 minutes to get there and once off the busy A43, we wound our way through lovely countryside with some pretty little villages (and a thatched cottage that was for sale that looked gorgeous!). The first nice surprise was that two hours of parking was free which made a welcome change!

We wandered around and then went to a little tea-shop called Connies where, for a treat, I ordered afternoon tea for two. I have to admit to never having had a proper afternoon tea before and it was delicious. Sophie even enjoyed her cup of tea, served in beautiful china cups with an enormous teapot. We ate finger sandwiches (ham and cream cheese and cucumber), warm scones with clotted cream and jam and slices of cake. It was extremely filling and we staggered out half an hour later feeling very glad that our dinner tonight was Keith's tomato soup!

Buckingham is a lovely old town with lots of little shops and a Saturday market where we looked at some beautiful Indian dresses. I also managed to get a Playstation 2 game for Michael, something that's getting much harder as Playstation 3 has taken over. I have a feeling we'll be back with mum next week as it's just her sort of place!