Woolthorpe and Belton House

Back in…May (I think) I have added pictures to this post, but never finished writing it.  Actually, I have a couple of unfinished “local drafts” on my blogger. One of them is named “Exploring the surroundings of Hirosaki” from two and a half years ago. Not sure if I’ll ever get to blogging that one.

All right. Who can tell me what is significant about the apple tree that you can see behind us on this picture?

Anyone?

That is the ORIGINAL “gravity” tree. That same tree that we hear about when our teachers and professors tell us about Isaac Newton’s discovery of gravity.

It was almost unreal to me to realize that Woolthorpe Manor, the place where Isaac Newton was born in 1642, is so close to our house (about 30 min. drive).  We all enjoyed walking through the main house set up to resemble the house as it might have looked back in the late 17th century.

This is the view of the manor from the side.  Somehow we did not get a better view picture, I guess we’ll have to go back there.

The kids also enjoyed exploring Newton’s ideas at the Science Discovery Centre.

Did you know Isaac also made the first reflecting telescope and split light into rainbow colors here in Woolthorpe? I definitely recommend this place for a half-day trip, especially if you are a National Trust member.

Since we still had time to spare, we decided to drive up a bit further to Belton House, another property owned by National Trust (therefore it does not cost us anything to visit it since we have NT membership).

Belton house is a beautiful 17th century English country house, located near Grantham. It has been in Brownlow family for over three hundred years and is open to visitors during spring/summer/fall months.

 

This time we did not have enough time to go inside the main portion of the house, but we did enjoy an hour long “Below The Stairs” tour with a very knowledgeable guide. This reminded me of “Downton Abbey” (if you watch that show, you know what I am talking about”.

We were not allowed to take pictures during the tour, but somehow Robert snapped this picture of the wine cellar and Katya.

The main part we enjoyed at this place is the gardens and the playground. If I had to describe their garden in one word, I’d say it was “Enchanted”—we loved it.

I wonder what it looks like when the leaves are changing colors. This gives me an idea for Columbus Day weekend….hmmm…

Robert WAS indeed with us on this day, it’s funny how he is not in any of the pictures. We need to try harder to take more pictures of him.

All right, my visitors (that is Robert’s Dad and Linda) are back from London, so I need to take a pause with my blogging tonight.

Lyana.