Day 30-July 31

Today was just magical. We went took a two hour train the Chesterfield/Derbyshire, which is now one of my favorite places in the entire world. It is SO gorgeous! I was just in love with it the whole time we were driving through the countryside. I could totally live here. The countryside of Derbyshire. The little cottages were so cute but I didn't get any pictures of them.

We took a bus to Haddon Hall, which is a medieval building/castle that is lived in by some duke. It is SO cool and super old. It’s an Elizabethan Tudor Style building and was unlike anything we’ve seen so far. I loved it! We took a little tour through it and then went out into the gardens which were beautiful.
The Great Room inside Haddon Hall
Jumping for joy at Haddon Hall. We loved this door and just had to take some model shots in front of it. haha
The gardens were gorgeous!

Some of the new Pride & Prejudice and The Princess Bride were filmed there and that was pretty sweet. In The Princess Bride it’s the scene where Prince Humperdinc (haha, I slaughtered that) makes his announcement, and then Buttercup comes out of the doors and the old lady starts to boo her. That is most definitely one of my favorite movies so it was kind of cool to see that. This is supposedly the door that Princess Buttercup comes out of. It's in the inner courtyard of Haddon Hall.

In Pride and Prejudice it’s the place where Elizabeth goes and stays at the Inn and sees Darci…I think…I’m having a hard time explaining that one but hopefully you know what I’m talking about. After Haddon Hall we had a sack lunch on the bus and went to Chatsworth (aka Pemberly in Pride & Prejudice). I was SO excited beyond belief because I have always dreamed and yearned of going there, but then I was slightly disappointed. For some reason I was under the assumption that it was going to be the Pemberly in the old Pride & Prejudice but it’s the one in the Kierra Knightly version. Wow, I am struggling thinking tonight so I’m sorry if none of this makes sense. It was still cool and super gorgeous but it was not nearly as fantastic as the real Pemberly from the first movie.
Pemberly!!!!! Also known as Chatsworth...in the real world.

We had a while to explore the grounds/gardens and they were absolutely incredible, I thought. They were huge and we only saw certain parts of them but I loved what I saw. We went to a couple of waterfalls and tropical forest areas and I totally felt like I was in Hawaii or something. Some of the trails were hard to find though and we got lost a few times.
This was one of the cascades/ waterfalls. You could walk around in it and some nice old man offered to take a picture of us

We found some pretty cool trails through lots of forests. This one was on the way up to a tower on the hill. It was a pretty steep hike but the view was beautiful.

Inside of Chatsworth was cool too. Chatsworth is owned by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and they currently live there today. You can tour the unoccupied parts of the house though. Amanda and I had the wonderful idea of getting audio tour guides so we could learn more about it but they weren’t very interesting. I did learn a few cool things that I otherwise wouldn’t have known though. Another thing I was slightly disappointed in was that part of the building has scaffolding all around it because they’re cleaning the stones. It really was still beautiful and amazing though and I feel very lucky to have been able to see it. We took the bus back to the train station at 4:45 and headed on back to London. On the way out of the station Amanda, Ashley, and I stopped at Subway for dinner because we wanted something fast and then we bought a few food items at the Tesco. I love Subway! It was kind of nice to eat something that reminds you of being home. One thing I’ve missed a ton is Mexican food. The first thing I want to eat when I get home is Café Rio! Anyways, sorry to get sidetracked…after eating we just tried to catch up on homework and packed up for tomorrow. We made a last minute decision this morning that we’re going to go to Scotland this weekend. I’m so excited! I think it will be way fun. Becca and Mallory have it all figured out already so all we’ll have to do is book some rooms for ourselves in the hostel. It should be good.

Day 29-July 30

Today was a free day. Kylee, Amanda, Megan, Ashley, and I all went to Bath for the day and it was tons of fun! (It was in the itinerary to go there today but then not everyone in the group wanted to go or something so they turned it into a free day...almost everyone ended up going, just at different times) First we went to the Roman Baths and they were way cool!
This is the main pool at the Roman Baths. The water has the coolest green color.

Basically the baths were a public place to bathe, swim, and worship. It still always blows me away how advanced the Romans were. They had all of these ingenious water systems and different ways of heating it and making it cold, etc. In some rooms they had heating ducts under the floor and it would heat up the water so they could have saunas and stuff. It was cool!
This was a pool where the Romans would make offerings to the gods by throwing in their coins. Today it is FULL of coins, as tourists come through and make their offerings as well. I just loved the color of it!

After seeing all of it we got to try some of the natural spa water that comes out of the spring. It was gross!!! It was hot and super mineraly. It tasted like hot salt water, but it was cool to try I guess. After the baths we went to the Fashion Museum and it was sweet! In one section they had the dress of the year for each year and in another section they had modern dresses that were matched up with a similar dress from past decades. It was cool to see how a lot of modern dresses are so similar to other fashion eras yet different in some areas. There was also a room where you could try on corsets and hoop skirts and that was cool. My favorite part of the museum was a special collection from The Supremes. I didn't even know who they were so Kylee had to kindly explain to me. In case you're as sheltered as I am and don't know they were a famous trio of black female singers and you can go look it up if you want to know more. They had a bunch of their glamorous outfits and they were way cool. After that we went to the Jane Austin Center. It was pretty awesome.
They had gentlemen at the entrance all dressed up to greet everyone and take pictures. They were cool.

Jane Austin lived in Bath for a few years of her life, which I didn't know before today. They had a little gift shop full of her books and things and it was cute. I totally bought a Mr. Darci picture that I'm going to hang up on my wall because he is basically my hero and I'm in love with him. We didn't pay the entrance fee and actually go through the museum part but we did have a tea party upstairs in the tea room. It was so fun!

Kylee and I with our raspberry cranberry something something tea

Mr. Darci watched over us as we drank our tea


I had tea and crumpets and they were so delicious! I'd never had crumpets before. I didn't even know what they were! Basically they're just like a really thick, spongy pancake. But they're chewier than a pancake. They came with clotted cream and honey and it was oh so yummy. Amanda got a victorian sponge cake and we shared.

We pretty much had to run back to the train station to catch our train and we made it on with one minute to spare. It was about an hour ride. When we got back to London we stopped by our flat and ate really fast. For the first time in my life all I wanted was a bowl of cereal for dinner! haha. I think I'm starting to adopt Amanda's eating habits. I had some corn flakes and they were very satisfying. Then Ashley and I booked it to Picadilly Circus to go see Les Miserebles. It was so AMAZING!!!! I absolutely loved it! I've always wanted to see it and I definitely wasn't expecting to while I was here but it worked out! It was so good! It just has the most powerful message about forgiveness and mercy. It totally made me cry and I am not a crier. Out of all the Broadways I've seen I think it has the best message. I'm so glad I got to finally see it! This trip has just been awesome. All of my dreams have been coming true! haha

Day 28-July 29

Today we took a train to Stamford. We've been traveling outside of London a lot lately...but I LOVE it because I would never just go see all of these places on my own if I ever came back to England, and they are way cool. The first thing we did was take a bus to Bourghley House (aka Lady Catherine De Burghe's house in Pride and Prejudice.
It was SO cool! I love going to places that I'm familiar with, especially when they're in my favorite movies! haha. One of my favorite features was that they had their own herd of deer on the grounds and they were super friendly and would eat out of your hand.
The deer were awesome! They'd only come close to you if you had food though. Good thing we brought some carrots with us today! Healthy snacks are good in more than one way. I should remember that.

The house was really pretty inside and our tour guide was cool. We saw a bunch of work by Grinling Gibbons who was a really famous carpenter and does amazing carvings. They were incredible! My favorite part of the tour was when our guide asked "are you ready to go to heaven now?" and then "do you want to go to hell?". haha. There were two rooms right after one another and one was all painted with murals representing heaven and the other with a depiction of hell. They were pretty cool actually. I also really liked the dining room (which is in the Pride and Prejudice movie when they're eating dinner). It was really pretty. All of the walls and the ceiling were painted to look like a palace and it's really large and open. We had lunch under at the cafeteria in the basement and I tried a scone with clotted cream and jam. It was delicious! I brought another jam and bread sandwich for my lunch. haha. We really need to go find some peanut butter. The weather decided to be naughty again. It was pouring rain after lunch so we didn't spend very long taking pictures in the gardens but they were really pretty.

There was only a very small area that you could go in anyways. I was, however, incredibly excited because Susie Tibbits and her friend Terri (who is also in England with us) do floral arrangements for weddings and I'm going to start doing it with them!!!! I'm just filled with so much happiness now! I really do love weddings and I have wanted to learn how to do the flowers for forever. After Bourghley House we stopped in Stamford for a while and just had a couple hours to look around the town. It's a quaint little town and they did some filming there for the Pride and Predjudice movie (when they're walking around town and the soldiers are there, etc). It was cool. A typical building on the streets of Stamford

We looked in the little shops and stuff and I bought some chocolate truffles and some bread to snack on at a bakery. It was still raining though so that wasn't quite so great. Amanda's umbrella broke and she had to buy a new one! haha. DON'T buy umbrellas from gypsies...they won't last very long. When we got back to London, Ashley and I went to Leicester Square (where you get all the discounts for Broadways) and bought tickets to Les Miserebles for tomorrow night. I'm SO excited!!!! I've always wanted to see it! Amanda and I went to Harrods after that, the biggest department store in the world. It was cool but it's just so big that it was kind of overwhelming. We didn't stay there very long. We also stopped at H&M and I didn't buy anything but Amanda found some stuff.
We have to get our pictures by H&M in every country for our H&M's around the world! Gotta love this store...

When we got back to the flat I was about to go running and then the fire alarm went off. That was kinda annoying but it actually turned out to be a bonus because while we were all chillin outside waiting for the alarm to go off I gained some running buddies. I was just going to go by myself but Erica and Jeanette both ended up coming with me. It was a nice little run. I just had a sandwich for dinner when I got back and I was going to do my laundry but I got too lazy. Basically I just did homework and went to bed. It was great!

Day 27-July 28

Today we had to meet at 7:50 and took a train to Oxford. It was about an hour to get there. Then we got on a double decker bus and headed to Blenheim Palace.
Our lovely double decker

Blenheim Palace was gorgeous! It's perhaps my favorite place we've been (the gardens were, anyways). We all arrived there as a group but then we just had the whole day to do whatever and take as much time as we wanted. It was nice.
This is a view of Blenheim Palace from the gardens

View from the inner courtyard

First we went and saw the grounds and they had the most luscious green grass. We probably spent a whole hour just frolicking on it with our bare feet. It felt SO good!!!!

We were so pumped to about the grass and we hadn't been barefoot outside in so long that we just had to do some heel clicks to express our excitement

Then we went to the secret garden which was absolutely beautiful!
Part of the secret garden. It was way peaceful in there

Chillin on a bench in the garden as we experienced heavenly bliss

We checked out other parts of the gardens as well and they were all really cool. We definitely took our sweet time and I don't think I've taken so many pictures in one place since since the Roman Forum. My poor camera is totally starting to break down because I've taken so many pictures. The button takes forever to register now. Another one of my favorite part on the grounds was the rose garden.
there were SO many roses!
It was so pretty and smelled SO good! It just was such a beautiful day and I was so happy. We had lunch in the little cafeteria under the palace. I had brought my own lunch so I just ate that. I was so proud of myself today because I brought tons of healthy snacks! We ran out of peanut butter yesterday though so our sandwiches just had jam on them. haha. After lunch we toured the inside of the palace. It was pretty inside. Blenheim Palace is where Winston Churchill was born and raised and we got to go in the very bedroom where he was born and everything. It was cool! They had a bunch of his paintings and stuff on display too and they had been made into hallmark cards. I didn't even know he was an artist. On the upstairs floor they had a video/acted out tour which was kinda cool but we had to speed through it at the end. We went through all three of the gift shops and then we took a stroll over to the pleasure gardens. We took a little train over and they just had a bunch of fun things like a butterfly observatory/greenhouse, a maze made of shrubberies, and a bunch of games and stuff (like life-sized chess). It was cool.
I was fascinated with looking at the butterflies. I've always had a thing for them

Everyone left the butterfly room without telling Amanda and I and we had no idea where they'd gone so we kinda got lost for a while and were freaking out but we finally found them after 15 minutes so that was good. The train stopped running before we were finished playing so we had to walk all the way back to the palace, which was probably about a mile. Then the front gate to exit the place was closed, for some crazy reason. Who does that? So we had to take a way roundabout way to get out of there and it took forever! It was after 6:00 by this time so we really did spend a long time in there.
Our little detour did end up being pretty scenic so I guess it made up for the extra walking that we had to do.

Eventually we made it out into the town again and found the bus stop. We barely caught the last train back to London and I just bought a hot ham and cheese sandwich at the station. I was so hungry and cold and it tasted so delicious! I was very pleased. We didn't really get to walk around Oxford much but I guess that's ok. It seemed like a really cool place though. It has lots of quaint little buildings and cottages. I read the BOM the whole way home and when we got back to our flat we just did homework and then went to bed.

Day 26-July 27

This morning began with a chain of unfortunate events. We took the train to Salisbury and spent the day there. Before getting on the train Amanda and I bought a custard filled doughnut at the krispy kreme stand (because we’re really bad at giving into peer pressure and following the crowd). It totally ended up on the floor of the train station before we even ate it. Gross. BUT ten second rule still prevails and we ate it anyways. It was sooo delicious! I was glad I only had half of one though because doughnuts always make me feel gross. The train ride was way long but it was good. I got some book of mormon reading done (I’m trying to finish it before efy…don’t really know how that’s going to happen yet), and then I konked out for the rest of the way. I’ve never slept so good traveling in my life! (not counting the overnight train that we took from Paris, but that’s different because we were lying down) Anyways, when we finally got to Salisbury we were kinda hungry and everyone was getting hot chocolate, with Cadbury chocolate in it no doubt, so I decided to try some!
The lovely train station.
Megan, Kylee, Michelle, and I totally got left behind in the train station because we were the last ones to buy our hot cocoa. So then we were running around the street trying to figure out where our group was and luckily we found them, but a few minutes later I realized that I had spilled hot chocolate all over my new hoodie. Haha! Don’t worry though…Becca is miracle woman and has a little kit in her bag with everything you would possibly need for every situation. I was well taken care of and with a baby wipe and a tide pen I was as good as new again.
This photo is to commemorate us being lost with our hot chocolate and not knowing where to go.
We took a bus to Wilton House and for some reason we got one-way tickets and didn’t realize it so we had to buy another ticket on the way back and it cost a ton! Wilton House is where the Earl of Pembroke lives. It was pretty sweet. They had a bunch of art from famous artists like Van Dyke and stuff and downstairs was one of Thomas Chippendale’s best pieces of furniture. It was cool…it was a big old hutch made for musical instruments but now it’s used as a bookcase. A bunch of movies were filmed in Wilton House, like Pride & Prejudice, and Sense & Sensibility so it was cool to see it because of that. The grounds were beautiful!
This was the most beautiful little bridge on the grounds at Wilton House.
After our tour they gave us strawberry lemonade and pastries and I felt like I was at a tea party. They had the SWEETEST playground in the whole world and we totally went and played there afterwards!!!! It was so awesome and it was totally sized to fit even big people so we had a blast. I felt like I was on swiss family robinson or something! After Wilton House we took the bus to Salisbury Cathedral and we talked to the cutest little old ladies on the way there.
The cathedral was pretty sweet. I’m getting burned out with cathedrals and museums though. When I get back home I will not want to see another one for a while. We got to take a tour and go up into the tower and that was cool. There was an awesome view from the top! Salisbury is a really cute little town. Our tour guide wasn’t super interesting though, or maybe I was just really tired. We tried to find some food for lunch and I ended up just settling for a salad in a café. I figured that would be a pretty safe choice and it was pretty healthy so it would make up for all the junk I’ve been eating. It looked way good but it was disgusting! I couldn’t even finish it. It tasted like vomit or something and all of the other girls had bad luck with their food too. Oh well. Josie and I washed it down with some chocolate and went around the nearby shopping mall buying candy and stuff. I definitely failed eating only one treat today. Our next great adventure was Stone Henge.
It was SO cool!!!! I loved it. It’s kind of out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by hay fields and stuff. I was kind of expecting it to be surrounded by hills and stuff and it seemed a little out of place but it was sweet. We didn’t spend very much time there but I’m pretty sure I took at least fifty pictures of it. After Stone Henge we took the train back home to London and Megan told Amanda and I her whole dating story before she got married. She has the cutest stories! I love hearing about people’s love lives. Anyways, we got back pretty late…like 9 or 10, so I stopped in at a little restaurant with Becca, Whitney, and Mallory for dinner and got a doner kebab. It had lamb meat in it which I’m usually kinda sketchy about it was way delicious! I also stopped at the Tesco and picked up some groceries for the next couple of days. After eating we just caught up on blogs and then went to bed. It was a long but exciting day.

Day 25-July 26

No pictures today. Sorry. It was our off day and we didn't really do anything so we didn't have anything to take pictures of. We slept in and then Amanda and I went running. I love running here. It makes me rejuvenated. Then we came home and I showered and ate breakfast. For most of the morning I caught up on emails and blogs and then at 2:00 we went to church. The singles ward is just a few blocks away so we got to walk and it was nice. It was so great to go to church again! I loved it! I haven't been all month because we always travel on Sunday. I felt like all of the meetings were way good. In sacrament meeting a general authority from the quorum of the seventies spoke and that was way cool. He gave a really good talk and I felt like it answered a lot of questions that I've been trying to find answers to. Sunday school was a riot. I love how enthusiastic the English are, and they gave us lots of treats. British chocolate is the greatest! I now understand why James brought home an entire suitcase full of chocolate. In Relief Society we talked about homes and temples and it kind of made me miss home, but I will be home soon enough and we are still having a blast being in England. I really do think I want to come back someday and be a nanny or something. I think that would be the coolest job because the kids here are so adorable and it would just be fun to actually live with the locals. After church we cooked a frozen pizza for dinner and did more blogging. That's about it!

Day 24-July 25

This morning we slept in till 9:30 and I made an egg sandwich for breakfast, in our lovely microwave. A bunch of people went to go buy tickets to Billy Elliot and we didn’t go with them for some reason. I think we were just confused and delirious because we were still half asleep. It took us a while to all get up and get ready but eventually we made it outside and we started the day off by going to Nodding Hill and did some shopping on Portabello Road.
It was so cool! I loved it! We actually ended buying a lot of stuff for way cheap and I have no idea how I’m going to fit it all in my suitcase but I’m way pumped about all of it. There were a bunch of sweet clothing stores that were selling everything for 5 pounds and I got a couple shirts and a sweet pair of shoes, and then I found a sweet London hoodie that I’m pretty stoked about. It reminds me of camping, and I cannot wait to wear it in the mountains. Haha. It’s super warm.

All of the buildings down the entire street are super colorful. We spent a couple of hours there and had pb&j for lunch. Then we went to the Globe Theater to try and get tickets for a show tonight but they are sold out until August 3rd. I’m actually not planning on going but Ashley and Amanda wanted to and I was with them. I think it would be cool and it’s not super expensive, but I just wasn’t really feeling it. Standing up in one place for 3 hours does not appeal to me right now and I am not Shakespeare’s number one fan.
Near the Globe Theater is Millenium Bridge. This is the bridge that gets destroyed by the death eaters in the new harry potter movie.
After going to get tickets, Amanda and I parted with Ashley and headed over to the Tower of London. It used to be a castle, and a military fortress, and a bunch of other things. I actually wasn’t that impressed with it. It was kinda cool but I guess I was expecting a lot more, and I didn’t feel like it was worth the amount of money I paid for it. It was like $25! It probably would have been cooler if we had a tour guide or something and knew what we were seeing but we didn’t really have time for that, unfortunately. We saw the crowned jewels, Henry VIII’s armor and a bunch of other armor, and the Bloody Tower where they used to keep prisoners.
Entrance to the tower of London
These guards are all over at the tower of London. They give tours during the day but only until 3:00 and we got there too late.

When we left, we ran into Kylee and Megan and ended up staying with them for the rest of the night. We went to the Billy Elliot theater to see if they still had any tickets by some chance (this was an hour and a half before the show started) and they did! We got an obstructed view off to the side of the balcony and you couldn’t see the one side of the stage but it wasn’t too bad. Before the show started we tried to go out to eat but the restaurant we tried was really slow. It took forever for them to even acknowledge us and then before they even had us seated we only had 30 min before we were supposed to be in the theater so we gave up on that idea. We went to the grocery store instead and just got pastas and sandwiches. They were pretty decent.
Billy Elliot was way good! It’s about a little boy who comes from a mining town that’s on strike and he’s supposed to become a boxer but he ends up learning ballet and is way talented, so everyone in the community pitches in to send him to ballet school. It was kind of hard for me to understand half of what they were saying (partly because of their accents, and I think partially because I just couldn’t hear them well), so I was kinda confused on the part of the story line. The music in it wasn’t to die for either but the dancing was incredible! I’ve never seen anyone so young be able to dance so well. Manda and I sat next to a girl from Oregon who is studying abroad in Paris and she was pretty cool. After the show we just came home, caught up on our blogs, and went to bed. It was nice. I’m super glad we ended up making it to the show because it would have been hard to squeeze in after today.