england: day 11

on day 11 we visited chatsworth house and haddon hall. 

chatsworth house is another pride and prejudice house. it served as pemberly for the 2005 version of pride an prejudice. it's very beautiful and boast a fantastic gift shop. immediately upon arriving we faced a disaster of epic proportions. i took out my camera to take a picture and discovered i had left my camera battery in the charger back at our hostel. i seriously almost cried. i contemplated driving all the way back to get it, but it was at least a half-hour each way and i was already stressed about time constraints as it was, so i settled for using my iphone camera. (heaven bless every person who has been involved in raising the cell phone camera to the level it is today.) the real irony of the situation is that both chatsworth house and haddon hall have zero restrictions on photography. you can take as many pictures as you want outside and inside the houses. fate is a cruel, cruel mistress. 

chatsworth house

they let us play the piano. we drew a little crowd, and neal put me to shame.
i don't play/practice nearly enough.

i could stare at this all day. even more beautiful in person.
i just want to touch it to try and figure out how they manages the draping effect over the face.
just incredible. 

can you believe the eyes on this lion?!

haddon hall. i was so excited to see haddon hall i couldn't stand it. it's been used in so many great movies, the princess bride, elizabeth, and both of my favorite versions of jane eyre. (it is thornfield hall.) it dates back to the 11th century!

neal asked me early on in the trip which house or palace i would want to live in, given the choice. i reserved judgement until the end, and haddon hall wins, hands down. he chose chatsworth house, which is nice and all, but way too ostentatious and obvious. haddon hall oozes medieval gothicness and i am helpless in the face of all that atmosphere. i mean, there is a built in chapel with bats, for crying out loud. who could resist such a thing!?!?

my two complaints about haddon hall are thus: the gift shop was an insult to gift shops everywhere; and the grounds are not open for wandering.

as i walked through the house i kept recognizing places were scenes from jane eyre were filmed and could almost imagine myself in the movies. i kept expecting mr. rochester to pop around the corner. (sadly, he did not.)

haddon hall

lower courtyard.

entrance to the great hall.

stained glass in the chapel.

wall art in the chapel

great hall

dining room.

have you ever seen a more perfect breakfast nook?

gardens right outside the house.

a prime example of the gorgeous grounds i was not allowed to roam around. cruel, just cruel!

back of the house and gardens.

haddon hall and chatsworth house are both privately owned and parts of the house are not open to the public because the families live there. could you die of jealously?!

seeing as how i did not have a proper camera for these visits, i clearly have to go back. who's coming with me?

england: day 10

on day 10 we said goodbye to craig. he wasn't interested in seeing the great houses in northern england (blasphemy) so we dropped him at the airport in london and neal and i headed north to the peak district.

when researching places to stay in the peak district, there were only two hostels to choose from, and the one most centrally located to all the places we were visiting was called roaches bunkhouse. yes, really. roaches bunkhouse. and it was so, so cheap. the name gave me many reservations, but in the end the adventurer in me won out and we made a reservation. it is named roaches because of it's location at the foot of a large rock formation called "the roaches." 

i can't even tell you how amusing the whole situation was. frankly it's a miracle we even found the place. it's located in a little village (and by village i mean a cluster of buildings on a tiny road off the main road in an unincorprated bit of the county) and is essentially a converted oversized garage. thankfully the owner happened to be standing out front when we arrived or i don't know how we would have found him. he checked us in and informed us that we were the only ones staying there. (neal commented that it seemed like the beginning of a horror movie.) he informed us that if we wanted to shower it would cost a pound (on the honor system) and we would have to tell him in advance so he could turn on the hot water. its a bunkhouse, so most people who stay there are backpackers and bring sleeping bags with them, but we didn't have any, so we asked to rent blankets (which the website said were available) which surprised him, but he found some and didn't charge us for them. then he left and we never saw him again, which was kind of problematic because we wanted a shower the next day but never got one. that being said, i kind of loved staying there. it was really cool (temperature) and so quiet and the village sat down in a little ravine of sorts and it smelled so good; a really clean, outdoorsy smell. there was a cute little pub up the street a bit where we went to use the free wifi and get some hot chocolate. i would stay there again in a minute, i would just arrange the shower situation as soon as i got there.

brochure

the main hallway.

our little bunk room.

the bathroom. co-ed. individual stalls for toilets and showers.potentially awkward.

the trip north didn't take as long as i anticipated, so we had time to visit lyme house and park that afternoon. 

lyme park is the house and grounds used as pemberly in the bbc versio of pride and prejudice. they do not allow photos to be taken inside the house (wink, wink). 

colin firth was here.

i half expected the headless horseman to ride toward me while walking down this path. 

after lyme we headed back to our bunkhouse, but we decided to hike around the roaches a bit. it was really fun and offered some gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside.