Lyme House: Pride And Prejudice

We have to admit that all of us here (minus Mark and Alex which makes it just the three of us at the end...oh well) are big fans of Pride And Prejudice. The first time I watched BBC's Pride And Prejudice with Colin Firth was in 1998 with the young women from my church in Orem, UT. It was a six hour ordeal or something like that, a major sleepover at my YW leader's house with lots of snacks. I remember that night as one of the highlights of my foreign exchange year:). I had read the book before then in Russian but this was something new--Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. 

So...

Fast forward almost twenty years later and we are here in England, passing through the Peak District which is where parts of the 1995 BBC Pride And Prejudice series were filmed. Therefore, we had to stop by and see if we can find Colin Firth strolling around. Besides, it was free to enter as it is a National Trust property:)

We grabbed lunch at Tesco before we parked and explored the grounds. 

The kids ate their lunch and played for a bit (it was still so chilly). 

I like funny hair/faces pictures:)

So the inside was very beautiful just like so many other estates. It's truly amazing that these buildings are preserved so well and that for filming movies they hardly have to change anything in terms of decor.

Mark working on a scavenger hunt type worksheet. 

And chilling in the library nook reading some...Beatrix Potter books;)

This is what the Lyme House looks like today.

And this is how Elizabeth Bennet saw it when she first arrived to Pemberley. 

It was impossible to avoid the crowd, so you get a few jumping Watsons with some random strangers.  Yeah...my jump was lame. 

Beautiful English garden:)

Here is another view of Pemberley, I mean, Lyme House. 

And if you zoom in, you can see the real reason Katya didn't mind stopping by at Lyme House:)) 

After Lyme House we headed home! That was our last multi-day trip within England...

Lyana.

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Magic Of The Lakes: Walla Crag Hike And Aira Force

As we were lucky to have gorgeous sunny weather for the second day of the Lakes adventures, we decided to go on a hike. I researched for weeks where to go as my first choice was Cat Bells, the famous hill, but I read so many reviews about how crowded it was and not always pleasant. Therefore, we decided to hike up Walla Crag. It was the perfect way to see lake Derwentwater from above too.

We drove to Keswick on the way, stopped by High Street and grabbed five delicious traditional pasties that we could eat once we get up that hill Walla Crag. We drove to Great Wood, an NT owned parking lot and started our hike from there.

The following are beautiful surroundings we enjoyed for several hours. 

The first part was a pleasant pretty flat walk with Derwentwater on the side. 

Footpaths everywhere. I still can't get over the fact that these stone walls have been here for centuries.

Our first stop was Ashness Bridge. This a very famous spot in the Lake District--one of the most frequently photographed places. 

It's a traditional stone-built bridge. 

You can get a nice view of Borrowdale from this viewpoint. It's actually a drivable road.

From the bridge, our walk turned upward. 

It was not very difficult, just a good effort. 

The views of the lake were magnificent. 

Mark was doing great! 

And that's where we took a long break for lunch. 

Our pasties were still warm, wrapped in foil. And they tasted as heavenly as we felt being in such a beautiful place. 

Mark is still smiling. 

This picture taken by an oldish Dutch couple who spoke excellent English (like most Dutch do).

And the three musketeers. 

On the way down we did not get lost:) Well, maybe just a little bit. We weren't clear on which path to take a couple of times but obviously we figured it out. 

We saw how steep the path was on the way back and were glad we didn't take that way up the hill. It was intense but I have no pictures to show you here.

And that was our big hike of the day. 

In the late afternoon, we drove to Ullswater Lake area. We didn't plan to take a boat like many tourists do over there (but we should have). Instead we visited Aira Force, a waterfall that is supposed to be very beautiful. It was free, as it was National Trust, so we thought we'd give it a try.

Although the walk was beautiful, it was quite busy and not really quaint. 

The views were beautiful but nothing out of this world. 

See? That's cute:) Stone bridge and all the greenery. 

Alex just wanted to sit by the creek and play. 

And Mark was attempting to pluck some coins out of the tree stump. As usual. Our kids find these things fascinating:)

Two full days in the Lakes have been fantastic! Definitely a trip we recommend. So many beautiful places in this country though--it's so hard to pick our favorites.

Lyana.

Magic of The Lakes: Part 2

It was midday already when got back on our planned route of driving through the lake countryside. The plan was to hit as many lakes as we can in the allotted time. I went online and found some sample route maps that tour companies used and adjusted it to our own needs. This is what it looked like. Our house was situated east of Keswick. 

We knew that there is no way to see everything in such a short period of time. And we didn't try. We wanted to feel the Lake District and to know why it's such a popular spot for thousands each year. Possibly it is the magical roads overgrown with greenery and so narrow rivaling crazy Welsh roads. 

Many times we had to stop or slow down to be able to pass some cars, but more times than not we were passed by some really wide vans zooming by us. We kind of had to close our eyes and hope for the best. Having the stone wall on both sides didn't help:)

Okay, back to the magic of the lakes. So maybe it's the stone cottages in the middle of nowhere, on the side of the hills. 

Or beautiful landscape with the aura of mystery that you can just feel in your lungs. 

Or beautiful pastures dotted with sheep dotted with different colors. 

We can't quite figure what it was about the Lakes. And we definitely were trying to take it all in while driving Robert's favorite road at Hardknott Pass. I thought I was going to die of fear we'd fall off the mountain, but it was very exhilarating for everyone else apparently. Just to give you an idea, this is the narrow road up a very-very steep hill (google maps image).

We had to pass a car only once on this pass going up and it was in a very convenient spot, so we got lucky!

And this is the road looking down. 

The top of the world! 

My adventurous boys. 

Well, hello sheep again. This time dotted with red. 

Our first official stop was at the lake called Wast Water. This lake is almost 3 miles long and is the deepest lake of England at 258 feet (79 m). 

It was a gorgeous lake! The lighting from the sun peeking through the clouds on one side of the lake was incredible. 

The kids thought it was absolutely freezing (this is end of May) but the wellies helped. 

We relaxed for a bit at this beautiful places. Should have brought our kayaks, we thought. 

If you like interesting weird murder facts, here is one for you about this lake;). I found it randomly while reading about West Water lake. 

Our next stop was Ennerdale Water. 

This was the perfect lake for practicing our skipping rocks technique. 

The kids wanted to stay for hours here. 

We wish we had time to hike around it. It's one of the smaller lakes that is not very frequently visited and thus is cleaner. 

Former President Clinton proposed to Hillary Clinton in 1973 at the banks of Ennerdale Water:) 

We were getting closer to dinner time, so we had to leave this unspoiled place, which is a shame. It was beautiful. 

After an ice cream stop (BEFORE dinner) we drove towards Buttermere Lake. We found a local hiker's pub Fish Inn to get some basic pub food, which was okay. We were stuffed, so we needed to go for a walk around the lake. Through the woods and beautiful footpaths. 

We attempted to take many family pictures but the sun lighting was tricky. 

And where is the lake here?:) Just wanted to get a better view of the hills. 

We loved this pair of sheep. Mama sheep and her baby, we think;)

We are getting sort of better at this, but can't see our faces any more:)) Can you hear the kids' groaning yet?

What in the world? Another one? I decided to mix it up a bit and took off my fleece jacket though:) 

Okay, finally a better one since the sun was setting now. 

Mama and baby sheep are back. They were really scared of Alex for some reason. 

Green places like this exist. 

Love the British. They know how to preserve stuff. No signs about "be careful, step up, don't sue us". You just know to be careful.

The walk was very easy and so beautiful. It was perfect for our after dinner venture. It was quite late by then, although it was still so light outside. We drove back to our house for a good night rest as we needed energy for the following day of hiking. 

Lyana.