Chiltern Open Air Museum

I remember the Chiltern Open Air Museum from several and I mean LOADS of school trips when I was younger, I guess it helps that it was only a 15 min drive from my first school, but we went there ALOT! I hadn't been back in years and was excited to see it again, and for once it's just the same as I remembered - well there are plenty more exhibits but the energy and atmosphere is just the same. It's basically a collection of all kinds of different types of buildings humans have built and lived in, everything from Iron Age huts to Toll booths and barns and everything in between. It's set in acres of fields, with horses and goats grazing and is just idyllic. Some of the huge trees must be hundreds of years old, with trunks about 7 feet in diameter. It's staffed entirely by volunteers who are so proud of their museum and happy that you are there that it's a real pleasure to stop and talk to them. We were there as part of a car club exhibiting at a Vintage Car Show, and so we got free entry (and a free cup of tea - cute!) and the volunteers were so glad we had made it as we brought loads of visitors in, that we got treated a bit like mini royalty on top of their usual friendly welcome. It was one of those quintessentially English (with a capital E!) summer days, sunshine, tea, eccentric people dressed up in period costume attempting to ride old bicycles, ice cream, old cars and meadows of flowers, perfection!