7.29.09 London.

the rainy window looking out to burghley house.

deer frolicking in the meadow.

I am beginning to wonder if the sun will ever shine in London for longer than a few hours. I just didn’t expect this much rain and cold in the middle of July and am most definitely not prepared with my wardrobe. Luckily today I had my new Oxford sweatshirt to keep me warm. It was another morning with a train and bus ride to the Burghley house in Stamford (not to be confused with StaNford like we have in the states.) We arrived to much rain falling BUT we were met with a wonderful surprise that turned into the highlight of the day…deer! Alright that doesn’t sound exciting but these were deer that are on the property all the time and love to be around people. It was so fun to go up and pet them and I just loved their little adorable faces and spotted bodies. I touched their antlers and how soft they were! I just couldn’t get enough of them and wanted to frolic in the lush grass with them all day.

he was so sweet! we think they're reindeer cuz it was raining and they are deer. get it? clever i know.

petting and getting to know our deer friends.

We went inside the house, which was built in the 1500’s and is a very classic Elizabethan style. We walked through rooms that were in the movies Pride and Prejudice, Young Victoria and The Davinci Code. An interesting fact that I learned while in the house was that there was a corridor added behind all of the bedrooms so that servants could get from room to room without having to walk through all the rooms. Since it was added later, it has become a secret corridor that is hidden by tapestries and paintings. Sadly, someone apparently couldn’t find the door in the 17th century and decided to cut the tapestry right where the door was so they could get out. Not the smartest thing to do to a century old tapestry if you ask me.




After our tour was over, we were starving and it was pouring rain so naturally it was time to have a classic English meal. We went to the garden café on the property and had scones with clotted cream…delectable! Sadly the rain remained with us as we left Burghley and as we headed into the town of Stamford. We had time to just wander and explore the town of Stamford that looked vaguely familiar and resembled Cambridge and Oxford but it was a cute quaint town nonetheless.

scone and clotted cream. a scone is actually just a biscuit but SO good.

we made a pit stop at Platform 9 3/4 so we could go visit our friend harry at hogwarts.

what you don't see in this picture is me actually running through the wall and onto the train to hogwarts.

We made it back home and could just relax and it was so nice. We, as in Ashlee, made a lovely dinner of fried chicken with potatoes and veggies. As we were enjoying our first real meal in a while, the fire alarm decided to roar its nasty head. It tends to go off for no reason so we weren’t worried about it and continued to eat as though it wasn’t going off. I started getting used to the sound and just talked over it for about 10 minutes. Don’t worry there was no fire and we didn’t die but I think Kaitlyn put it best when she said the fire alarm is like the boy who cried wolf. After that little episode, Brady brought his bed into our room and we had girl talk with him and fell asleep with dreams of sleeping in the next day.