Last night we burned the midnight oil talking to Roger our B&B host. He's only had the hotel for six weeks. He bought it at auction in a slightly run down condition. The prevous owners had it full of clutter and didn't even bother opening on weekends which would have to be the busiest time of the week! He's slowly decluttering it and chopping down vines and trees. In his previous life he has worked in Kenya and Hungary for Unilever and then more recently as a headhunter (that's what he called it) for executive positions in businesses in Hungary. So this latest venture of his is a complete change from what he's done before, especially as he does most of the work himself. He seems to be enjoying it and is full of all sorts of ideas, and we gave him a few of our own, now that we're so experienced at B&B:-) We don't think he can go wrong. There seems to be a real shortage of accommodation in England, and in this area in particular. And of course (as Roger pointed out to me) the B&B's in Ireland have more rooms in them because the families are bigger. Big Catholic population.
We spent today at Sandringham the queen's residence. She stays there each year from November through to February. The sun was shining but it was cold. We wandered the grounds, did a tour of the house and then joined a guided tour through the walled garden which our guide said is the biggest in Europe. At the moment it's mostly paddocks as it's now seen as an inefficient way of keeping the royal household in fruit and vegetables. The house was built in 1870, so not very old, and employs 7 full time gardeners.
