7/31/09 -- Haddon Hall and Chatsworth

Today was such a fun day!! We started off really really early though, having to meet at the metro station at 6:45 am. Luckily we had a lovely 2 hour train ride to the Derbyshire country. The first place we stopped was the 12th century home, Haddon Hall. We got to have a private tour of the home before any other people arrived. That was really nice! Haddon Hall was the home of Lord and Lady Manners and his been in the family since 1567. It is one of the greatest houses to survive the middle ages. It was really cool inside. Everything had stone floors and oak furniture. It was all very midievil and mystical. One of the things that I thought was really cool was all of the main stairs where the people had walked a lot over the years were so worn in they were just a big hole. It was insane! My favorite part of the house was the long gallery. It was this beautiful stoned room that stretched on with a beautiful window at the end. I really liked it. Also there were many windows in the house that had original glass still in them. All of the original glass was green, while the newer glass was white. It created a very interesting pattern.

The kitchen was also a very interesting place. The tour guide told us that the servants lived in the kitchen. They just rolled out mattresses on the floor and slept there. It was quite disgusting. She also told us that in the 13th century the cooks would just leave the same pot of soup in the fire and just keep adding things to it. They never would switch the soup out. So gross!

Haddon Hall has been used as a stage for many movies over the years, including: The Princess Bride and Jane Eyre. Our tour guide showed us the chapel where Prince Humperdink and Princess Buttercup were married. It was surprisingly really small. It's so crazy to me how these film producers can make a set look so much larger than it actually is.

After we finished touring the inside of the home we headed out into the gardens. They were so beautiful. Stone statues everywhere and a different choice of flowers and landscaping then what we have seen at the other homes. The view of the countryside from the gardens was breathtaking. Everything was so green and stunning. I loved every second of it.

After Haddon Hall we climbed back onto the bus and went to Chatsworth. Chatsworth is one of England's grandest houses. It was said to be what Jane Austen viewed as Pemberley and Pride and Prejudice and is why it was used as Pemberley in the Kiera Knightely version of Pride and Prejudice. We drove up the lane and we could see the most beautiful view of Chatsworth. It is a very grand home indeed. We got dropped off at the front entrance and we were given four hours to view the gardens and the house. Julia and I started in the gardens. They were HUGE! There were too many places to go we didn't even have time to see half of it. We saw some of the prettiest waterfalls. My favorite was the Cascade Waterfall. It was really big and extended all the way down the hill. Your allowed to walk around in the waterfall and follow it all the way down to the bottom. We took our shoes off and played for a little while in the water. It was so much fun. We also hiked all the way up to this tower that was up on the hill. It had the prettiest view of the countryside and of Chatsworth itself. After the tower we went into the house.

The house was as grand as all of the others we have been too. It is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. The home was built by Bess Hardwick and her husband back in the 17th century. The grounds of Chatsworth was a gift to Bess Hardwick's husand after he helped King William III take over the English throne. When building the house he created many state rooms in hope that King William would come and visit. He never did, but the state rooms are still there today and I got to see them. They were very beautiful. I do have to say though, that my favorite part of the house was the library. It extended forever and there were over 15,000 books in there. It is said to be one of the greatest libraries in the world. As Chatsworth was used as Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice there were may areas that are scenes from the movie. It's always fun to see those things.

After the house we spent some time in the gift shop and I bought a really pretty puzzle for the family. I hope they like it! Tomorrow I'm headed to Scotland. It was kind of a spur of the moment idea, but I'm really excited! We'll see how it goes. The trip is so close to being over only a few more days. I can hardly believe it. It has been the greatest experience of my life.

At Chatsworth there were a lot of waterfalls and we were able to walk through this one! It was called Cascade Waterfall and was huge and very beautiful.

Here is another one of the waterfalls. This one is called Willow Tree Fountain.

Throughout the gardens there was a ton of Contemporary art. This is one of the peices.

Chatsworth is there behind me with the emporer fountain shooting up in front of it.

Chatsworth...

Julia, my professor Susie, and I out in front of Haddon Hall.

There were some of the prettiest views of the countryside here.

Some more of the views from Haddon Hall.

The outside garden of Haddon Hall. It's a beautiful 13th century home.

The Grand Gallery of Haddon Hall.

An original 13th century oak table.

The chapel at Haddon Hall... Where the marriage of Prince Humperdink and Buttercup took place in The Princess Bride.

The entrance into Haddon Hall.

7/30/09 -- A day in Bath

Today was such a fun day! We were suppossed to go to Bath as a group, but at last minute yesterday Darrin said it could be a free day, but that he encouraged us to go to Bath. Bath is a very historical town that is about an hour or so out of London. It is where the only natural hot springs in England are located and they are the historical Roman Baths. When the Roman Empire was in power it extended all the way up into England and they created a giant spa. Also along with the pool they built a temple dedicated to the Goddess Silus Minerva.

Julia, Kylee, Megan, Ashley, and I decided to still go to Bath this morning. We woke up at about 8:30 and got on the 10:30 train. We are always really slow on days that we don't have to meet as a group ha ha. Anyway the train ride took about an our and a half or so, and I again slept the whole time. I'm starting to look forward to train rides because it gives me some time to catch up on some sleep. Ha ha it's quite nice. We go to bath a little bit before noon. We stopped at a little pasty shop for lunch. I really like pasties a lot. It's funny though, I've liked English food more than any place we've been. Probably because it's the most similar to America's. Anyway, after lunch we went into the Roman Baths. This was so cool for me. It's still almost completely standing. The Romans were architectural geniuses. They created tese large swimming pools and sauna/steam rooms with cooling off pool. They had their own heating system and their own drainage stystem, to heat the steam rooms and to drain the pools for maintenance. The steam rooms were really interesting to me. They built large rooms and then used tiny bricks stacked on top of eachother to lift the floor of the main ground. The heat was then pused into the rooms and would heat the floor from the ground up. It was so cool. When they were escavating the baths archeaologists discovered many objects from the Romans that had gotten stuck in the pipe system and rooms. They found beautiful jewels that had been from headresses, masks, rings, and all sorts of other things. That was really neat to see.

Also amongst the Baths was the temple dedicated to the Goddess Silus Minerva. She was considered to be some kind of sun goddess. Her temple was used for sacrifices, but there was also a large bath inside her temple. People would sacrifice animals outside in the courtyard on the alter, but would sacrifice objects and money into the pool on the inside of the temple. When archaeologists discovered this they found many different objects in the pool. One thing they found that I thought was quite interesting was the curse papers. The Roman people would throw wadded up papers into the pool. Historians discovered these and found writings on them. The papers held curses. The people would write curses they wished to happen to someone and would ask the Goddess Minerva if she would grant these wishes. Ha it was crazy! They had a sign with some of the things that were said on the papers. They were not very nice wishes.

After we finished touring the baths you can go to the restaurant and try some of the spa water for free. Ha so we went and tried it. It was horrible tasting stuff. I just had a sip, but it was really hot and very mineral tasting. I hope I didn't contract some disease.

We headed to the fashion museum after the Baths. This museum was a blast. It headed major designers clothes, but showed the fashion changes throughout time. My favorite was when they compared designs from the 50's and 60's to designs of today and they practically matched! It's so funny how design just repeats itself especially in fashion. They had a special exhibition on the Supremes while we were there. That was sure neat to see. It was all of Diana Ross's and the other supremes old costumes and dresses. They were stunning.

Like I said before Bath is a very historical town in more ways than one. Jane Austen had lived in Bath for a portion of her life and many of the famous scenes from her books come from the village. Walking down the streets really make you feel like you're walking the same steps as Elizabeth Bennett or Emma Watson. It was so fun! In the town they have a center that is dedicated to Jane Austen. It created a home that would have been similar to hers. It was so darling! We spent some time in the gift shop and I got some cute Mr. Darcy photos for my mom and my sisters. I also purchased a book of witty comments by Jane Austen in letters to her family. I've already read some of it and she was such a funny, but classy lady! No wonder all of her books are such classics. We didn't have time to take the tour of the center, but we did have time to have tea with Mr. Darcy! They had this room that was created to look like a Regency living room. We had tea and crumpets in there. All around us were pictures of Mr. Darcy and other characters from Jane Austen's books. It was so cute. And now I can say I had tea and crumpets! ha ha.

After our little outing at the Jane Austen center we had to quickly get back to the train because the other girls had to make it to some shows tonight. I decided to stay in and get some homework done because I had already seen Les Miserable back in Salt Lake. I enjoyed today a lot though! Bath is a beautiful little town.

Megan and I drinking our tea at Jane Austen's Regency Tea Party.

Just spending some quality time with Mr. Darcy.

Hmm two gentlemen asked to escort me to the tea party who to choose. Ha ha jk! This was out in front of the Jane Austen center. They were so cute! and acted just like they were from one of her books.

Megan and I at the fashion museum.

In the fashion museum they let you dress up in corsets and hoops skirts. Ha ha it was so much fun! And the corsets and hoop skirts were not that uncomfortable.

When they were excavating the Roman baths they found a lot of things in the water and in the worshiping pond including curses. The people would write down horrible things they wanted to have happen to a certan person in hopes that the Goddess would grant there wishes.

The steps into the Holy temple. These are the original steps. If you look closely at the top step you can see how worn it is.

Also when they were excavating they discovered things in the drainage system of the pools. One of these things were these beautiful jewels that they believe came from different kinds of jewelry and headresses.

Drinking the spa water. It was rather disgusting. I hope I don't get sick from it ha ha.

This is one of the steam rooms. These rocks would elevate the floor and then steam would be pushed into the room causing the floor to get hot, creating a steam room or sauna.

The largest bath. This is where the majority of the people came to swim and bathe. It was still very hot water.

A model of the Roman baths during the Roman Empire. It was a very impressive structure.

It is a very historical place.

7/29/09 -- Burghley House and lovely Stamford

Today started off at 7:20 am at the usual metro station meeting spot. I'm so tired these days that I don't really know what's going on in the morning or where we are going. I just show up. Ha ha so I had no idea we were going to Burghley House. When we walked into the grounds of Burghley House there was this huge herd of deer. Darrin said that the house has had it's own herd of deer since it was first built. The deer would just walk right up to you, one of them even ate a carrott right out of my hand!
After feeding the deer forever we got a private tour of Burghley. Burghley House was built by William Cecil the Lord High Treasurer and Chief Minister to Queen Elizabeth I, from 1520-1598. There is no High Treasurer today because the sixth Marquess was not able to produce an heir, so the house belongs to a charitable trust that was set up by him. The house was used a lot in the Keira Knightly Pride and Prejudice. Burghley House is Lady Catherine de Bourgh's home. It is so fun to see all of these places that are from the movies!
The home itself is beautiful. I am really enjoying all of these English homes more than the palaces in France. Burghley House has some very beautiful rooms and some cool portraits and furniture. Burghley House had many visits from the Queens over time, so they had certain rooms that were built for the Queen. My favorite room was the green satin room. My favorite part of the room was the bedspread. It was lime green and was embroidered all over. It was gorgeous.
Many of the wood ornamentation in the house is done by the famous Grinling Gibbons. My favorite of his work in the house is the Violins that are carved above one of the doors. It is beautiful. There is also a wooden carving of a bird. The bird was carved out of one piece of wood, and you can see every single detail. The bird looks real. The tiny little feathers are even carved in the wood, you could probably pet it.
After the tour we went to the house cafe and got scones and clotted cream. They were so yummy. My scone had raisins and then I put the clotted cream on and some strawberry jam. It was really really yummy. We went out into the gardens for a little while and took some more pictures. I love all these homes, but they do start to look a little similar after awhile. We left Blenheim and headed into town.
Stamford is the cutest little town. Just your typical little English town. I liked it a lot. Many of the Scenes in Pride and Prejudice were filmed in this town and so that was fun to see too! We had about an hour and a half to look around and shop. I bought my sister a really cute necklace from Dorothy Perkins and then Julia and I spent some time at Thornton's. Ha ha it is the greatest chocolate shop ever! Oh and it was raining so hard today, it rains so hard everyday, but my worthless umbrella got wripped to shreds by the wind so I had to buy another one in town. It was a bummer. Walking around town though I found a little bakery called Gregg's. Ha just like how my Dad spells it. It was awesome.
We got back to London at about 6:00pm. Julia and I headed to Leicester Square so she could get tickets to Les Miserables and then afterward we went to H&M and Harrods. Harrods is the largest department store in the world. It was huge!! And so much fun to walk through. I couldn't even fathom how large the place was. We didn't even get through half of it. After this I came back and talked with Kylee and Ashley for awhile. Ha ha they are so funny. It's going to be hard to go back to real life and not see these people everyday. I'm just loving London and this trip I'm so sad to leave!

Harrod's.. the largest department store in the world. It was insane!

Feeding the deer at Burghley House.

Greggs the Bakers.. Spelled just like your name Dad!

Lovin' Stamford.

Cheering in Burghley gardens.

As always the gardens wer so beautiful.

Erica and I have the same umbrella that we both bought in Rome. They are so ridiculous and don't even keep us dry! That's why I bought a new one today.

Burghley palace had their own herd of deer. They were just running around the place and we fed them food!

Burghley Palace. GORGEOUS!

7/28/09 -- Blenheim Palace.

Today we had to get up bright and early and meet at the metro station at 7:50. I was super tired and took forever to get out of bed, we barely made it to the train on time. The train ride to Oxford was about an hour. Oxford is another little college town like Cambridge and it houses Blenheim Palace. We took a bus from the train station to the palace. By what I saw from the bus I think Cambridge is a cuter looking town. Oxford reminds me a lot of some of the areas in Salt Lake. Not very English if you ask me.

We got to the palace around 10 in the morning or so. And walked the longest driveway EVER just to get to the front entrance. I was pretty tired by the time we got to the palace. It was a really long walk. We took some pictures outside and then Susie told us that we had the rest of the day to ourselves. We could stay at Blenheim or head into town and hang around Oxford. I decided to stay and see Blenheim.

Blenheim Palace is the home of the Duke of Marlborough. Sir John Churchill won the battle of Blenheim in 1703, and for his reward was given the land to build a palace. He built the palace and the line of Duke has passed through father to son. Winston Churchill was the Duke of Marlborough at one point and was also born in Blenheim.

We started out in the Gardens. There are so many and they are so beautiful! I think Blenheim is my favorite palace so far. The gardens are just to die for. Versailles and the other palaces have beautiful gardens, but Blenheim's is almost like a forest, it reminds me a lot of the mountains back home and I really liked that. My favorite of the gardens was the Rose Garden. It was this little fenced off area that was covered in every color of Roses. It smelled divine! And all of the flowers were so pretty. We had a good time taking lots of pictures.

Right outside of Blenheim is the largest piece of grass I have ever seen. It stretched for miles. We took our shoes off and frolicked about on it for atleast an hour and boy was it the worlds softest grass. I tumbled on it for a little while, of course, and we took lots more pictures. Ha over all we took about 200 hundered pictures outdoors alone. It was about 1:00 or so and we finally decided to go into the house.

The palace itself is just as grand as the others. Beautiful family portraits and paintings line the walls and ceilings. We got to see the room the Winston Churchill was born in, and also a whole room dedicated just to him. That was really cool to see because he was such an important man in history. The upstairs part of the palace though is super lame. They've filled it with these dummies that try to reinact scense from the past. It's not really my favorite thing to have to sit through.

After the palace we went outside and took the train to the Pleasure Gardens. This garden had a butterfly house that was filled with beautiful butterflies and poisenous flowers. Also in this garden was a giant bush maze and a playground. There were also human sized checkers and chess boards that we played on for a good while. We headed out of Blenheim at about 6:00. It was a little later than what we wanted because the last train leaves at 7:00. So we kinda had to hurry. We walked all the way to the exit gates, and they were locked, so we had to walk all the way to the other side. We got kind of lost back to the bus stop, but we ended up making it to our train on time. The train ride back I slept, which was nice, and then came back to the flat and did homework. It was such a fun day!

The giant checker board! It was so fun.

Sweet ANTM picture. I'm finally figuring out my camera and the trip is ending.

Pretty picture of bumble bee on flower.

One of the butterflies in the butterfly house.

Rose petals in the Rose Garden.

The Rose Garden. My personal favorite. It was so pretty.

The entire garden full of Roses. Hence the name.

Me on an elbow tree in the Secret Garden.

A beautiful flower in the Secret Garden.

ANTM in the Secret Garden. This is my pal Kylee.