December 18, 2007

Some B&B's remind me of staying at my grandma's house- it's hard to say what exactly, but it's one of those things I guess. This is the B&B we stayed at in Bakewell.

Our trip to Chatsworth this weekend very great. There wasn't any snow, but it did get below freezing and there was a lot of fog- as you'll see by the pictures. We stayed in a great little town called Bakewell, right on the riverside. Since adventures seem to follow us wherever we go (in fact after reading back over my own blog I'm starting to wonder- we seem to have an unusual amount of adventure) there was of course some adventure. Said adventures began with our trying to find the B&B...

G had excellent directions to the B&B. We made it in great time, 2.5 hours, which for a one day trip is basically unheard of in the UK. People were shocked when we told them we went up Friday night and came back Saturday night. Several people mentioned that they only drive that far if they're going on holiday for a week or 2. For me, 3 hours is my limit for a an overnight trip. But 4 or 5 is ok if it's a weekend.

We got to Bakewell, and it was really foggy. We had a printout from Google maps, showing us on the map where this place was. Well, unfortunately it wasn't very accurate when it came to the right house...the directions instructed us to turn right at this sort of street, which we did, and then we found ourselves staring at a bunch of ruins. We were behind a row of houses, in the complete dark. Obviously that wasn't right. So we called the woman, who had no idea where we were. Eventually we went back to this little intersection, and the only other option was to go straight, and there was a very clear sign saying "Riverside Business park only!" It turns out that the B&B was down that little path.

Our B&B was down this road.

It was a very nice B&B- a family home with 2 rooms above it converted. The family had 2 grown sons who were now married, and so they ran the B&B. Everything was great, we went to sleep (although I did have to use a throw pillow in place of the bed pillow because the bed pillow was too fluffy and made my neck hurt) and I slept fine. G didn't sleep so well, but neither of us slept very well when we heard a banging stumbling sound in the stairway at like 4:30am. I was like "Uh, that sure sounds like a drunk person stumbling up the stairs." B&B clientele aren't usually that type. But, sure enough, it was a drunk guy and his wife. Said drunk guy put his keys into our door, at which point I was like "Uh, G, someone's putting keys in our door" so he jumped up and put his hand on the door just to make sure, and eventually the guy got the point and tried his own door.

The next morning after breakfast we found out the whole story from the lady- this couple had gone to some big party down the way and came back at 4:30am (which we already knew.) The couple came down for breakfast after we'd finished ours, and both of them were still drunk (it was only 5 hours later) and what happened next is one of those moments of hilarity which stick in your brain forever. :) The man, who was over 50, started talking really loudly to G and the landlady about this party and how he knew they guy and the sorts of things drunk people think are important to tell others. The guy and G were right across from each other, and his wife started shouting across to me about the party, so it's like there were 2 really loud conversations being shouted across each other, and we didn't know these people or really care about their party. :) I had to bite my tongue not to laugh at the crazy loud talking and the complete lack of interest we had in knowing what it was that they were shouting. :)

Morning foggy picture just outside our B&B.

G taking pictures of the lake in front of Chatsworth

Anyway, Chatsworth house had lots of cool xmas decorations up, and the grounds were nice too, although it was windy and slippery and cold. :) The best place to get info on Chatsworth is to go to www.chatsworth.org.

Chatsworth house from one end.

They decorate 12 or 13 rooms for xmas.

The library.

The Dining Room

The Dining Room from the other end. :)

Victorian decorations of citrus slices

Chatsworth is famous for their collection of statues- I like this giant foot. It's 4ft long!

Even the statues get decorated.

Me and a giant stone lion.

Fortunately we didn't have any issues coming home, we got home in good time and went to bed early. Our house has been really cold because it's so drafty, and we've been filling up our Focus water bottles with warm water to warm up the bed. And sleeping in layers. :) Yesterday I bought some draft blocker things and G installed them all over the house, and it's made a huge difference. I also got a convection heater to heat up our bedroom, which is at the end of the radiator line and never gets warm. Needless to day we'll be happy for the 80F weather awaiting us in Sydney. :)

I thought you might like to see a funny sign that we saw in Bakewell. Here in the UK they are very serious about picking up your dog waste, and they have very detailed signs just in case you didn't understand what "Pick up your dog's waste" meant. This one shows the person picking up the dog waste. :)


Time is flying here as we prepare to head back to visit everyone, and with the preparations for our being gone from here for 5 weeks. Some kind friends from our home group will be taking Nelly for 3 weeks while we're in Sydney, and since all the catteries are full Nelly will have to stay here by herself for 2 weeks. I'm trying to enlist a neighbor to at least come and check on her once a day or every other day. I think she'll be fine but I would feel better if I knew that someone was stopping in just in case she got injured or something like that. Thanks for your prs about this- our friends love cats, even vocal ones, and will give Nelly the attention she needs while we're gone. Pr for her 3 week adjustment and that she'll be ok for the first 2 weeks while we're gone.

We're staying Friday night in London so we can catch our flight at Heathrow on Saturday morning, and we'll be in Detroit at 12:40pm! It still feels surreal right now to be seeing everyone so soon! We've heard all about the snow storm, and we're ready for some snow and real winter weather. :)

I'm hoping to get together with E this week before I leave- she's been sick, so please pr that we can meet up and chat once more before I leave.