International Bread Festival

For our tenth wedding anniversary we spent a couple of days in Enniskillen and one of the places we visited was the National Trust property, Florence Court.  At the risk of slight understatement, I loved it. Then about nine months later we spent a leisurely Sunday afternoon at Rowallen Gardens.  The seeds of a stately home and garden addiction were planted.

Thus, I thought that it would be a lovely idea to visit Castle Ward on the Monday Bank Holiday.  Thus the adventure began.

A line of slow moving traffic?....It must be a National Trust property!

It was a beautiful day.  The journey through Down was quite exciting and then we encountered the line of slow moving cars which indicated we had arrived!  To be fair, there was a large neon signpost outside Downpatrick that warned of long delays but I didn't quite believe it.

Beatrice finds car journeys most soporiphic 

However, despite our worst fears, the line actually moved steadily and before too long Florence was efficiently shepherded into a large field by neon tabarded men.  

As we disembarked we realised that the field was not the usual car park but had, until very recently been the home to a herd of cattle.  Beatrice was quite excited about the cow plops.  We walked toward the house and noticed a large stage in front of it....we also noticed that we had not been charged any entrance money....welcome to the "International Bread Festival"

It was, by then, lunchtime, so as we browsed the "Asia" stalls we didn't spot any bread, but were able to buy a mixture of currys and a couple of cups of coffee which we ate in the sun at the back of the house, looking over Strangford Lough and making daisy chains.

We then met up with Jonathan's parents and a surprise special guest and we set off to discover the breads of "these isles".  We did find the crumbs of the gingerbread man competition in the old laundry and taught two little maids a few practical skills, should they ever go into service in the 1890s.

Hard at work

Cinderella

We also found a playroom with dressing up clothes and Victorian toys.  The stable yard was filled with exhibitors, selling pizza, crepes, pulled beef burgers, cider and bread.  

We bought a couple of maps for two little girls to help them find Hansel and Gretel in the woods.  After one false start, that took us down the hill, back up the hill and to the toilets in the stable yard and past the hot food vendors again, we began the breadcrumb trail, searching the trees along the path for letters to solve our puzzle.

Only missing out on one letter, we were able to work out that "The _ingerbread house" was infact the Gingerbread House (which was a table with a picture - slight sniff of disappointment) where we collected our trophies (a pink stuffed pig for Bea).  Josie didn't want hers so Granny Gina took a lamb for Phoebe.  Our trail allowed us to visit the farmyard and witness two geese honking horridly at each other and and hen an a cockerel getting on rather well.  Then it was time to line up for ice cream.  The lengthy wait was reduced by a fantastic bluegrass band playing in the barn yard and a strange cowboy on stilts blowing bubbles (no joke)

Meanwhile, there was some free style dancing going on.

She's got the moves!

There was also a little bit of pioneer cookin" going on.  Obviously we were by now in the "Americas" and his griddle scones we a nod to the "International Bread Festival"

Two little girls were eagerly able to skip up the hill back toward the house with the promise of the park, which was duly investigated and then after a quick stop in the stable yard for refreshment, we walked back to the car park.  Some folk headed home and the rest of us took out our picnic and headed back to the lawn in front of the main house.

(At this point, Mummy headed back to the stable yard because someone's little pink pig had mysteriously disappeared.  It was eventually discovered hiding in the similar toys for sale bucket in the shop.  The shop assistant agreed that it was probably Bea's and I could take it with no charge as it didn't have a price tag on it and it was FILTHY)

Once joyously reunited with piggie, we were able to enjoy a fine cup of tea, some scones (with cream and jam), pecan pie and the jubilee buns left over from Saturday.  The music from the live jazz band morphed into swing music and I was in my element.  At the other end of the lawn they were showing Wallace and Grommit's "a matter of LOAF and death"

Then at eight o'clock we packed up and headed to the back of the house where we watched the Wild Goose sky diving team parachute out from their plane against a backdrop of clear blue skies and land perfectly in the field in front of us.

Many people stayed to listen to more live music and light a jubilee beacon at ten.  But we headed home, tired, happy and a little more in love with the National Trust and each other.

Footnote:

It was a fabulous day.  Lots of stalls, exhibitors, fun activities and great atmosphere...so for future reference, don't be put off by the "International Bread Festival" label...because really I haven't got a clue what it was all about save that we had free entry and there were about 5 bread themed stalls.