A day at Chatsworth House

It´s hard to pick favorites, when thinking of all the places we saw on our daily tours in England. My favorite area was definitely the Peak District and I loved our hikes and the tours through villages like Bakewell and Matlock-Bath.
We stayed with the awesome Stinson family in our first week and were able to visit many families from Dani´s former mission.
On our second day at the Stinson´s, Dani and I went to visit Chatsworth House, which I wanted to see ever since I watched the latest Pride and Prejudice movie with Keira Knightley (while I love the faces better in this movie, I very much prefer the older, full BBC film version... ok, enough nerdy commenting on movies, don´t get me started!). Dani and I spent a wonderful, sunny day on the grounds and in the gardens of Chatsworth, and of course went inside to see the many paintings and the art collection. There was lots of ohhh-ing and aaahh-ing, strolling and ice-cream eating. My very favorite part, though (aside from the gift-shop... I am a woman!), was the park and landscape, surrounding the manor, the lupin garden especially. Dani and I sat on a bench and watched people pass through it to get to the hedge maze, or to take pictures, and everything was perfect. I think that was the spot, where I decided that Chatsworth would be my new home. I´m not greedy, I could build my own cozy cottage there, right next to the lupin garden, so the Duke and his wife could still visit their the actual Chatsworth House... .

Well, enought said - here are pictures from our day at Chatsworth.

I fell in love with this place. It certainly is a tourist trap, too. But hey, I was a tourist ;). And while I loved spending a day at Chatsworth, I loved our whole vacation time in England. I´ve always wanted to go to England (London too, but that will have to wait until I´m rich and famous - or in another life ;) ), there is just so much history and art there. The architecture kills me (in a good, slow, nice and cotton-candy killing way) and I wish we would have had much more time and actually make sketches instead of taking pictures only. So many beautiful details to take in.

More pictures to come in the next few posts...