July 29

(Burghley House)

While we’ve been in London, every morning we meet at the tube instead of meeting at our hotel/flat. This means that every morning I’m running/fast walking to get there on time. This morning we met at 7:20 and left London, AGAIN! Practically everyday this week we have taken the train out of town. It’s been an adventure but I do look forward to our free day to explore London! Hence I’m in London but if you look at my pictures it may seem that I’m always in a garden and I would have to say that is fairly accurate!

Today we went to Stamford, not to be confused with Stanford! We took a bus to the Burghley House. Most of these estates that we visit are homes to Dukes today. Obviously they don’t take up the whole estate, but usually have a wing to themselves. It would be interesting to see what their apartments are like since the parts of the estate that we see are not what you’d call cozy or homey! What would it be like to have a bunch of tourists at your estate?! I’m not sure how I feel about that one, but I’m glad they do, so we can come and see! Although there are still Dukes today, these houses are looked after and kept up by board members and trustees.

The Burghley house has been used for movie scenes in Pride and Prejudice and the Di Vinci Code. Pretty much all of the palaces we’ve seen have a connection with Pride and Prejudice. I don’t recognize the rooms so it will be fun to go back and watch the movie.

We were greeted by lots of deer when we arrived at Burghley house. Usually in Utah we avoid the deer, but no, not here. It looked as if the deer were famous as we chased after them and took pictures. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone got an autograph!

We took a guided tour through the house. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures inside. The estate is beautiful and our tour guide couldn’t be cuter. She’s an older woman with a lot of spunk and of course, a cute little ole’ British accent!

Afterwards we ate in their café. Darrin and Susie insisted that we try their Creamed tea, not a beverage but a scone with clotted cream and jam. I guess this is as English as you can get. Very enjoyable!

Of course pictures were in order so I ran outside and snapped a few before I turned blue.  We took a bus back to Stamford where we were dropped off and left to explore for a couple of hours. Stamford is a cute town. When we got there I wondered where the people were. It seemed to be pretty low key with little shops and bakeries lining the streets. We took the bus back to the train station and arrived back at Kings Cross where we had started our little adventure just that morning.

(open courtyard at Burghley House)

(Stamford)