The Highclere Red House

Yesterday we took the tube from Knightsbridge to South Kensington, then switched trains, rode a few more stops and then arrived at Paddington station. 

I LOVE riding the tube in London. It’s SO easy to get around and there’s the added bonus of people watching as well.

Once we arrived at Paddington station we then hopped on a high speed train {about a 50 minute ride} to the town of Newbury. 

Jen had zero experience driving on the other side of the road, and I only had about 10 minutes of driving before The Girl took over driving on a previous trip. 

So picking up a rental car in a smaller town vs London seemed like a good plan. 😉

Driving on the other side of the road may not seem like a big deal… But add in a slew of road signs, insanely narrow roads and the fact that you have NO IDEA where you are going… It can be a wee bit of a challenge.

Since neither of us knew how to drive a stick shift, we reserved an “economy” sized automatic. It cost about twice as much as a stick shift, but we didn’t mind. Because seriously, learning how to drive a manual transmission car on the fly probably would have been a bad move. 

Anyway, long story short, when we got to the car rental place the car we had reserved {Ford Focus} was returned that morning all banged up and wasn’t road worthy. So they put us in a “premium” car {Mercedes} at no extra charge and we were soon on our way.

With FULL COVERAGE of course. Pro Tip: When traveling in a foreign country, ALWAYS opt for full coverage. Especially when traveling in England or Ireland as the roads can be very {and I do mean VERY} narrow in some parts. Especially the countryside.

I told Jen I’d drive the first leg and well we weren’t 10 minutes down the road before we passed a super cute farm shop {which turned out to be attached to a pub, The Highclere Red House} and decided to stop and have a look.

Just look at all those beautiful vegetables!!

And how they were displayed. How could we  not stop and have a look around, right? Wouldn’t you have stopped too?

And for the most part, no plastic packaging.

Actual FRESH produce. The real deal. It was lovely!!

Fresh plums!!

The farm shop board at The Highclere Red House.

Inside the shop there were meats, cheese, fresh bread, pastries and fresh flowers. It was magical I tell you. Just magical.

We ended up buying tea, some bread {which was still warm from the oven!} and some other rations and sat outside on the pub patio.

Lunch in the countryside, does it get any better than this!?

As we were enjoying our lunch {and surroundings} we looked across the street and noticed the signs on the houses {maybe holiday lets?}. Yep, you guessed it, we were just minutes from Highclere castle. 🙂 

Talk about the perfect start to the day. 

Have I told you how much I love it here? How dreamy it all is? 

~Mavis