The queue for the café went out of the door, round the corner of the stable block and, as far as I could tell, halfway to Leeds. It was 12:15 on Wednesday 16 April, the middle of the Easter holidays, and we walked straight past it carrying a blanket.
Harewood House is about twenty-five minutes from our front door. We hadn't been since before Alfie was born, and Rob had a day's leave, so we booked a proper day out. The sun was out, there was a cold breeze, and everybody had a jumper in the car and no one wore it, which is how I know it was a real spring day.
The sat-nav was on until the second roundabout, when Rob said he knew the way, and we drove through Harewood village twice before the sat-nav was allowed to speak again. I mention it only because nobody has ever let him forget the first time, and I would like the record to show that I was gracious.
What the tickets cost
I booked online the night before. Grounds and gardens tickets came to £58 for the four of us: £17 for each adult and £12 for each child (Alfie is five, so he doesn't get in free any more, which he found insulting). Parking was included. Booking ahead saved a small amount over the gate price, but mostly it saved us a queue.
There were three things we didn't buy. The first was the upgrade to see inside the house, which would have been about another £8 for each adult, and which two children under ten would have lasted about nine minutes in. The second was the Easter trail sheet at £3.50 a child. Alfie wanted it, so we made our own trail instead: ten things to find on the walk, written on the back of a receipt. A red kite, a lamb, a daffodil, a duck with a bad attitude, and so on. He found all ten. The last, "something older than Grandad", was a stone wall, and I think Steve would be flattered.
The third thing we skipped was the café.
The picnic bench
I had looked at the café menu on the website before we left, with the price of two jacket potatoes, two children's lunches, a pot of tea and two hot drinks, and I made it £39.80, with no cake. For the picnic I packed ham and cheese sandwiches, a pasta salad, cucumber sticks, four apples, a packet of crisps to share, flapjacks and a flask of tea for us, with squash for the kids. It came to £9.60. So the picnic saved us about £30, which is where the title comes from.
A picnic bench near the lake, a bit away from the crowds, was free by twenty to one. We ate for forty minutes. A red kite went over, which is Harewood's party trick, and Alfie lost his sandwich and found it again. Isla took her coat off and put it on the bench like a woman who has decided to stay.
The rest of the day
The afternoon belonged to the adventure playground. Isla swore she was too old for it and went on the zip wire three times. Alfie rode his scooter along the terrace until Rob asked him to stop, on the grounds that it was a stately home, and then rode it for another ten minutes. We walked the long way down to the lake. The magnolia by the terrace was out, and there were lambs in the field beyond the wall. There was one compromise: Isla wanted a hot chocolate with marshmallows from the café kiosk, and I said yes to one, to share, for £4.40. She finished her half in about four minutes and Alfie's in two.
Easter Sunday itself, four days later, was quiet: chocolate before breakfast, a roast at two, and a hot cross bun over the fence for Jean. But I think the Wednesday is the one the kids will remember. On Tuesday they were back at school, and Alfie told his teacher, I'm told, that we had been to "a castle with a lake".
The sums: tickets £58, picnic £9.60, one shared hot chocolate £4.40 comes to £72.00, against about £102.20 with the café lunch, a saving of £30.20.
