After lunch I took advantage of a sunny interlude to go on an afternoon jaunt. I took in Little Apley Pool and Tee Lake before making my way home along the Silkin Way.

I had another encounter with a dog that wanted to be by me. I had stepped off the pathway to let the owners and their two dogs go by (with social distancing in mind). One of the dogs had other ideas. He came over to me, looked up at me and stood by my feet.

He refused all calls to go back. As he turned to his humans he buried his nose in the soggy leaves and retrieved a stick that was completed concealed to my eye, still staying at me feet. I have to confess it always makes me feel special when a dog greets me in this way

The owner came to retrieve him, apologising in my face they did so. So much for me trying to respect social distancing…

I beat a hasty retreat and continued my walk home without further incidents.

We set off a little later than planned for the first stage of our holiday where we were staying with family in Kent for a housewarming party before moving on to Chichester.

Despite the late start we were still in time to stop for lunch at Little Amsterdam, Banbury. Suitably refreshed we carried on with our journey which was slow and tedious due to congestion on the motorway around London.

We eventually arrived at our destination. We were given a tour of the house before a well earned aperitif before dinner.

First stop was Little Amsterdam Cafe for lunch.

After lunch we made our way to Broughton Castle where we enjoyed the landscape views and a visit to the Parish Church of St Mary Broughton with North Newington before the castle was open for visiting.

During our visit we enjoyed a pleasant conversation with the eldest son of the current Baron of Saye and Sele (owner of Broughton Castle) and also a brief encounter with the Baron himself.

We arrived home to find a couple of unexpected visitors!

Links to my previous posts about Broughton Castle and Banbury:

• Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross
• A Day Trip to Banbury
• Broughton Castle
• Broughton Castle – Interior
• The Chapel – Broughton Castle
• The Garden – Broughton Castle
• Lunch in Little Amsterdam

On a soggy saturday we drove to Banbury for a family gathering at the delightful Little Amsterdam Cafe. We ended up spending most the afternoon there due to an accident on the motorway causing holdups on the journey.

The pancakes were as delicious as they had been on our previous visit and the staff were charming. They loved the fact that we had all travelled from some distance to meet up in in a central point and we had chosen their cafe.

A good time was had by one and all

Little Amsterdam Cafe and Restaurant in Banbury is fully licensed and serves much more than the pancakes I showed you in my previous post. In addition to the pancakes it also serves Omelettes, sandwiches, gelato, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, cakes, muffins, waffles breakfast, main courses, deserts and daily specials.

On the Little Amsterdam website Ilja explains about the food and the reason behind the name:

Little Amsterdam is the name that the Dutch affectionately use for Haarlem, a beautiful market town about 20km from the capital. I was born in Haarlem so to call this delightful café Little Amsterdam is very appropriate.

I am looking forward to sharing with you some of the very best The Netherlands has to offer.

It’s not just about clogs and tulips, The Netherlands has so much more. From the famous cheese markets to beautiful architecture, from culture and history to the people themselves and, of course, the food. Dutch pancakes are pretty much as popular as fish and chips are here in the UK.

Many people think that pancakes are eaten only as a sweet treat but they can be enjoyed as much as any main course.

The Dutch pancake isn’t really complete unless it is served with stroop (syrup, pronounced strope) – my favourite is the cheese, bacon and stroop pancake… delicious!

I also recommend the “poffertjes”, another extremely popular Dutch dish. These are fluffy mini pancake “discs”, best served with butter and a generous dusting of icing sugar… amazing!

After a family gathering in Banbury last March we planned to return later in the year to visit Broughton Castle and perhaps sample some pancakes in the Little Amsterdam Cafe. The occasion of Mr C’s birthday was the perfect to occasion to realise our plan.

We arrived in Banbury just in time for lunch and headed straight to the Little Amsterdam Cafe. As it was lunchtime I elected for something light and chose a pancake with hot raspberries and ice cream whilst Mr C chose chicken stilton and mushroom. I can confirm my pancake tasted as delicious as it looks in the photograph. After lunch we had a brief look around the town before heading off to Broughton Castle. We had timed our arrival to when it was just opening so were among the first to arrive.

We joined the back of the small queue of people purchasing tickets. There was a man talking incessantly about how he had only come to look at the castle because he thought it was only a ruin and now he now realised that it wasn’t and would buy the guidebook and come back with his wife another time. When a car drove down through the gateway to the property in what can only be called a rude manner he challenged the people inside it, ‘are you the owners?’ They were not, one of the passengers had a disability, this led to the man becoming even more rude and out of order grumbling at the staff about him being unfairly treated as he had been made to park his car in the car park and he was disabled.

Then he began a rant which did not make complete sense but was over the top. I think there had been a misunderstanding about his needs due to his disability. Some people just like to make life harder for themselves than it needs to be and then  to grumble and cause trouble.

I am not sure if he was able to resolve his issue with the member of staff who was trying to help him out but eventually he made his way back towards the car park and out of earshot. Peace and tranquillity resumed. After purchasing our tickets we decided to do a tour of the gardens first. The sun was out and we were unsure of what the weather would do later and also we thought that most visitors would do the house first making it quieter later also.

The gardens and grounds are delightful as is the castle, more accurately described as a fortified manor house. The house is interesting both architecturally and historically. The house has been in continuous ownership of the same family since 1377. The house is home to Lord and Lady Saye & Sele whose family name is Fiennes. When we had finished viewing the house we thought it necessary for a visit to the tea room where we opted to share a slice of orange cake accompanied by a refreshing drink. When we were suitably refreshed we visited the Parish Church of St Mary Broughton with North Newington before setting out on our journey homeward.

The return journey wasn’t pleasant; there were delays in the rush hour traffic. The SatNav initially told us we would arrive home at 18.30 and we had booked a meal reservation on the basis of this. A short while into our journey the arrival time had changed to 19.30 and then more alarmingly to 20.10. As the SatNav normally advises of shorter journey times (it has live traffic updates) we were a little puzzled that it had not provided any alternative route information and we didn’t feel that the arrival time was correct.

I made the bold decision (bearing in mind we are in congested traffic) and said I am going to reset our journey. Mr C said do it quickly then because we were at the point of making a choice of route. I complied and the SatNav recalculated and changed its original route advising that our arrival time would be 19.00.

Phew… We arrived home with just enough time to freshen up and chill out before it was time for our evening meal in the Ugly Duckling.