REWIND Since we had such an unexpectedly long layover in Chicago, Andrew & I decided to take the train downtown. There's a train station at the bottom of the airport. We basically had time to ride downtown & come back. Here's where we ended up when we emerged from the subway station.
Andrew eating Krispy Kreme at Heathrow while we wait on our luggage to arrive
(which didn't happen)
(which didn't happen)
Bobbies eat doughnuts in England, too!
At least we didn't have any problems with the train ride to Nottingham, except that our coach's AC was broken, but they let us switch to a different coach.
University of Nottingham
We got up late Monday morning, ate some breakfast (scones & coffee!) & then walked to the city centre of Beeston (the part of Nottingham where Allison & Daniel live).
This is Allison & Daniel's church.
This is Allison & Daniel's church.
Anyone recognize this house?
Yes, for all you Pride & Prejudice lovers, this is the house used for the exterior shots of Pemberley in the new version of the film. The name of the house is Chatsworth & is owned by the Duke & Duchess of Devonshire (even though it's in Derbyshire, we've been trying to google why that is). The couple does live somewhere on the property, but the entire estate is now managed by a perservation society & they're working on restoring the house to it's original glory. "The Duchess" with Keira Knightley was also filmed here as well as a new werewolf horror flick that will come out this fall. "The Duchess" is based on the life of one of the duchesses that lived at Chatsworth, Georgiana.
There are 5 libraries in the house. This one is comprised of two rooms boasting about 20,000 books.
front of the house's chapel
There was a room with period costumes for kids to dress up in. All that fit Allison & me were the wigs. Do we look like duchesses?
Almost all the ceilings were paintings. I took more inside pictures, but they all came out really dark due to the rooms being dark themselves because of all the paintings in them.
cascading fountain behind house
The gardens seemed to go on forever!
The wind was really blowing this fountain water around. I wanted to get close so I could take pictures of the house, but I had to angle myself to not get wet. Allison cracked me up when she wouldn't get anywhere near it. I made her hold my coffee while I took pictures.
OK, so the rest of the story behind our visit there. We got there & ate lunch. Then the courier service that has our luggage texts Allison to say they'll be at the house no later than 4:40 that afternoon. Well, it's 3pm by that time & we're an hour away. What to do? After much deliberation & attempts to call the courier (they have no working phone number!), Daniel & Andrew decide to drive home & let me & Allison tour Chatsworth (we cared about it most anyway). They would come get us later. So Allison & I see the sites, half of the time in the rain, & the workers start walking around at 5:30 to let us know they'll be closing in 30 minutes. Allison calls Daniel & he's pulled over on the motorway because the car is overheating. We make our way to the restrooms one final time where we wait.
The workers come around & close all the gates (it's still raining & cold). We assure them our ride is coming. One worker asks if we realize that a bus is coming. We decide to try it hoping to land in a pub in a nearby town. At least we would be out of the elements there. We end up in a cute pub in Matlock & Daniel comes to our rescue at 7:30. The car is better but will have to go to the shop this week.We went home & ordered Indian food & sat down to watch "Hot Fuzz," a must-see for all you want to know about English police work.
Now I'm up & blogging. Daniel is on the other computer. Allison is at work & Andrew is taking full advantage of sleeping late on vacation, or maybe he still has jet-lag.
Oh, and the courier did come with our luggage. Yes!
1 comment:
Great pictures! Thanks for sharing!
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