I’d driven past Burghley House on a number of occasions during my weekly commute from Hull to Bedford. It was on one of the many different routes I used in order to break up the boredom of the journey.
This time however, Jill and I were in the area as we had been to visit her son Michael’s new house in Peterborough. We decided to pay the house a visit before heading from home on the Saturday.
Writing this brings back the memory of an awful visit to the Bella Italia on Cygnet Park. We had enjoyed quite a few nice meals at this restaurant chain, mostly when visiting London. This though, was an entirely different experience. The staff seemed disinterested as we waited at the doorway to be seated. It then took an age for anyone to come to us to even take a drink order, and it’s not as though the place was busy. When we finally got food on the table, some of the order was missing. Michael’s chips hadn’t arrived, the meatballs were missing from my dish, and it was so ridiculously packed with chillies that it was inedible. I sent mine back, but by the time a new dish arrived, Jill and Michael had finished their food and mine was still far too hot, and I’m not squeamish about spicy food! The last straw was that when we were ready to leave, no-one came to clear our plates or take payment. The staff were all gossiping on the other side of the room, I had to go over to get someone. I was actually tempted to just walk out!
Overall, the trip to Peterborough wasn’t one of our best, but it was certainly worthwhile going to Burghley House before coming home. We did get lost in the gardens a couple of times due to an out of date map, but we still enjoyed the day.
