Thursday

These egs behind me are separate bathroom stalls. This is in the resturant/gallery of Sketch


Candle holders in the window of Liberty (Awesome shop, way cool)


Sherrie and Winnie in front of the display

Today we kind of just walked around. We went into several shops that had cool designs. Here a a couple of pictures. (we couldn't take pictures in the shops because the are "designer" shops.

Syon House and Wicked

On Wednesday we went to the Syon house. We had a tour guide that was very, very long winded. He just kept talking and talking. It was cool but too long. I liked a lot of the furnishings and there were these very small sitting rooms in the corner of the house that only fit 4-5 chairs but I loved them. In the evening most of us went to the musical Wicked. It was a musical about the movie the Wizard of Oz, but it was a story about the witches and how they became to be. It was fabulous. We had front row tickets, I ended up sitting in the far corner so I moved back a row so I could see better. The actress who played the Wicked Witch of the West had a most amazing voice. It was an awesome play. Well worth the £25. We could look down into the pit (where the musicians sit) when we stood up and the drummer had an awesome set up, Cassie and I talked to him for a bit, not only cause his drums and set up were aw some, but he was pretty cute as well. Pictures will be coming shortly.

Tuesday = Chatsworth

A ceiling in Chatsworth


Me


You guessed it -- A piano!


Another ceiling


Me in front of the pond, in front of the fountain, in front of Chatsworth

For all of you Pride and Prejudice fans, Chatsworth is Mr. Darcy's house in the new Keira Knightley version. We were allowed to take pictures inside of the house, which is unusual. It has amazing interiors. I don't have very many pictures because of my camera problem, but I will soon be getting some pictures from friends. It has 105 acres of gardens, of which, not many we explored but the house was beautiful and so were the grounds. We ate lunch at the cafe, and it wasn't too bad and it was priced fairly well. I think Chatsworth has been one of my favorite days so far. For dinner I went to this really upscale resurant, Sketch, with Darrin, Carolynn, Kelsey, Maryam, and Winnie. We ate on the first floor, for the 2nd floor's plates started from £100 up to £200, which is between $200-$400. I went cheap and only spent £10, but it was an awsome place. We had a lot of fun.

Monday = Blenheim Palace

Side of Blenheim Palace


Me by the back Blenheim Palce


Secret Garden


Me in the front of Blenheim Palace


The bridge over the lake.

We went to Blenheim Palace. It was raining pretty hard when we arrived, but it cleared up a little by the end of the day, still gloomy but at least no rain. I loved the building and the grounds. We went on a tour of the rooms, but as it is also a private residence, with a lot of the houses we see, we did not see a lot of the rooms. The rooms were very extravagant and there was so much stuff and gold leaf and decoration. They were pretty but very overwhelming. I really loved the outside of the building though, very pretty. The grounds were large and my favorite was the secret garden. We were told to eat "cream tea" or i don't know exactly how it is spelt, but it is this roll type thing and you put clotted cream (which is like butter) and jam on it. It was supposed to be great, my opinion, so, so, not worth the £2.75 we paid for it. Luckily I halved it with Jesi, so it wasn't a total waste, but she didn't think it was that great either. Jesi and I walked the gardens for a long time, everyone else left pretty early. We went into the butterfly house and we did a hedge maze. It was fun but the main gate was locked by the time we left so we had to walk around to the side gate. It was a small adventure. But it was fun.

Saturday in Manchester

Lindsey fell down the stairs of our hotel as we were walking out. Of course I had to get a picture, and I was laughing too.


The biggest chandeleir I have ever seen. Just to hazzard a guess, I would say it was 20-30 feet wide. You can see the glass roof that ran the length of the building.


Marble Statue


I love this marble. I have never seen anything like it and it was all over!

Lindsey, Jesi, Maryam, and I decided to go to Manchester. Maryam's brother lived there for a couple of years and told us to go to the mall. So we took a 3 hour train ride to Manchester. The mall was amazing. It is so big. There are columns, statues, a huge dome. Everything is in marble and gold and made to look old but it is a newer mall. There was china town, new orleans, and who knows what else, I bet we only saw 1/2 of the mall -- if that! I got a new side bag, skirt, and shirt, an umbrella, and some earings. It was a successful day. We are really glad we went.

Friday

Friday everyone in my room was feeling either sick or tired. I mostly slept all day and we ventured out once to get something to eat, but other than that it was a boring, but nice day just to relax.

Thursday in Cambridge

Building in Cambridge


Winnie and I punting on the Cam.


Me punting on the Cam


Sighing Bridge.


Winnie and I

Today we went to Cambridge. It got its name because there is a river called Cam. There was a bridge over Cam, and eventually through the years, it turned into Cambridge. There are 31 colleges in Cambridge. The city was so pretty. We went on a walking tour with Sally who was in her 60's. She was so nice and knew a bunch of stuff. My favourite part of the day was punting on the the Cam. The view from the river was so nice. We went into Kings Chapel. It has great fan vaulting on the ceiling. The chapel is amazingly intact. There has been no major restoration on the chapel because the building has fared so well. We then spent a little time in the market doing a little shopping. I got some Turkish Delight (like what is in the Narnia series. I had like a pineapple flavour and a rose flavour. It is like a jelly with powdered on it. Pretty interesting. It started pouring and it was like 1 1/2 to 2 mile walk back to the train station. I had my poncho but my legs and shoes still got wet.