Welcome!
The original Entertablement site with tableware and recipes happily continues to grow. The travel portion of the site continued to grow as well—so much so that eventually, it needed its own home. So, here we are – Entertablement Abroad!
Longtime readers will know of The Cathedral Project—my quest to photograph all 42+ Anglican Cathedrals. Well, after ten years of travel, thousands of photographs and oodles of research, it’s done! All written up in a special section on the site featuring their fascinating stories, an historical timeline and an interactive map of their locations.
Along the way, we also visited castles, stately homes, abbeys, and monasteries—more to come on them. Meanwhile, our previous posts about other countries are still on the menu.
Enjoy!
The Cathedral Project
A visual, mapped and narrated tour through England’s most storied cathedrals, each with its own spectacular architecture and all with fascinating stories to tell.
CATHEDRAL STORIES
Visit our Cathedral blog, which takes you on a tour of 43 Cathedrals and the unique role each played in England’s history.
CATHEDRAL TIMELINE
Through the lens of a cathedral timeline, you will see how world-changing history unfolded over centuries
CATHEDRAL TAPESTRY
The tapestry of England’s Anglican Cathedrals comprises the warp—the political and historical backdrop that affected them all—and the woof, the unique story of each cathedral.
CATHEDRAL MAP
You have the what, when and why. The cathedral map provides the “where” in a convenient google map format.
Castles and Stately Homes
No tour of England would be complete without a look at the castles and stately homes for which England is so well known. Here a links to a few, with more coming in the months ahead.
The Old Palace, Hatfield House
The Old Palace at Hatfield was the childhood home for all three of Henry VIII's children but is most closely associated with Elizabeth I. During happy periods in her childhood, it was where Elizabeth shared her brother Edward's education. Later, it served as a refuge...
England 2023 Week #3—Northumberland to Bibury
The final leg of our journey started with a five-and-a-half-hour drive—from Beverley in Northumberland to Amberley, near Arundel, to attend the Goodwood Revival. As described on their website, the Revival is The only historic motor race meeting to be staged entirely...
England Week #2—Derbyshire to Northumberland
Our travel to England revolves around finding unusual places to stay within reach of castles, cathedrals and stately homes we want to visit. At the end of Week #1, we bid goodbye to the Russian Cottage on the Chatsworth Estate. From there, we drove north to Bamburgh...
England Week #1—London to Derbyshire
We've been back from England for a few weeks now and are now fully recombobulated. I was determined to promptly process all the photos I took on the journey and set myself the task of going through all 1693 photos at the rate of 100 a day. That's done (whew). So now...
The Family Trip to England and Scotland
The Big Family Trip has been long in the planning. Originally on the docket for 2020 (sigh), it was pushed out to 2022 so as not to overlap with the Clans and Castles train journey Glenn, and I had booked for 2021 to celebrate our respective significant birthdays (you...
England in the Autumn Part II
Following our time in England in the Autumn. Determining which train to take to Chichester was more complicated than I had envisioned. Staff shortages, line repairs, and similar disruptions ruled out the usual route from Victoria Station. Lauren and I eventually...
Unique Places to Stay
England 2023 Week #3—Northumberland to Bibury
The final leg of our journey started with a five-and-a-half-hour drive—from Beverley in Northumberland to Amberley, near Arundel, to attend the Goodwood Revival. As described on their website, the Revival is The only historic motor race meeting to be staged entirely...
Burford & Chipping Campden
Let's do a little armchair travelling to the beautiful Cotswold villages of Burford and Chipping Campden. Like many people, we have postponed our overseas trips for now; I'll use the found time to catch up on photos of past trips and let the world gradually come to...
Hartwell House
“Daffodils, that come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty” (Shakespeare, Winter’s Tale, act 4, sc. 4) Daffodils abound at Hartwell House, swirling in colourful drifts around the historic house-cum-hotel. Anyone who has ever planted...
Valentina’s Lost Orangery
We are finishing up our time in England and head home tomorrow. In my spare moments throughout the trip, I've been busily sorting and processing photos in an attempt to wrestle more than 2,000 of them into a workable number for future blogs. The good news is I've...
Leeds Castle, Kent
We've been settled in Kent for almost a week now, in a tiny cottage on the grounds of Leeds Castle. One of the benefits of staying on the property is the ability to wander the grounds after everyone has gone home, so we got these night shots a couple of evenings ago...
The Hunting Tower, Chatsworth
We are very comfortably situated at the Chatsworth Hunting Tower, and have had a marvellous few days visiting Haddon Hall, Hardwick Hall and the exhibit at Chatsworth itself, House Style, Five Centuries of Fashion. More to come on all of these adventures! The...
Chateaux of France
The Palace of Fontainebleau
We had been extremely lucky with the warm temperatures in April, but our weather- luck deserted us as we travelled the 34 miles from Paris to the Palace of Fontainebleau by train. It was, in a word, F*ing (Frigidly) Freezing. The day was sunny and bright, just...
The Loire Valley
The Loire Valley is utterly gorgeous in the spring - abundant lilacs, colourful bulbs and tumbling wisteria. I've done a quick recap of some of my favourite spots from our trip a couple of years ago. In putting together the collage, I noticed I chose three...
Chateau de Beynac & Chateau de Castlenaud
We had been awash in elegant chateaux in the Loire valley, and were interested to see that the ones in the Dordogne region were much more austere. Built in the middle ages, their purpose was defence, not entertainment and refined living. Chateau de Beynac...
Chateau de Chaumont
It was our last day in Amboise, and we had time to see one more Chateau. Anxious to see the "rest of the story" between Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medici I voted for Chateau de Chaumont. I was dying to see the "downsize" into which Diane de...
Chateau de Villandry
Another day, another Chateau... Chateau de Villandry is rightly famous for its magnificent gardens, very much in the French parterre style. I'm more of an English Country perennial garden gal, myself, but these were something to behold. We started by exploring the...
Chateau de Chambord
The next Chateau on our list was Chambord, probably the most photographed Chateau in the Loire Valley if not all of France. It is undoubtedly the largest and marvellous example of French Renaissance architecture, built by King Francis I (the self-same Francis who...