"You must allow me to tell you..."

The day after Joey and Maddie's whisky adventure, I was woken up at the unGodly hour of 9am with a text from Patrick asking what time we were heading off. I'm not going to lie, I thought I was dying. I was sitting on less than five hours sleep as well as a healthy dose of hangover, and I seriously considered not going to Chatsworth. I let Patrick know that we definitely were not heading off until closer to 10.30, and I tried to get back to sleep... but that didn't happen. I eventually rolled out of bed and got ready to go. I met Karsten and we walked over to Stephenson and grabbed Patrick and Elizabeth before catching our bus to the interchange, to jump on the one that would take us through the Peak District and to the house of Mr Darcy.

Unfortunately, the buses were not on our side this day, and we ended up missing the one we needed. The weather was miserable - grey and drizzly, and we were all bundled up in our coats so we headed over to the train station to get a coffee while we waited out the hour before our next bus. There was talk of leaving the trip for another time, but Elizabeth and I were adamant that Pride and Prejudice could not wait. Eventually, we jumped on our bus and were all excited when we realised that it was a double decker one, and so naturally we decided to sit up the top, at the front. By this time the weather had cleared up too - it was still cold, but the sun had made an appearance and the sky had turned mostly blue. We headed through Sheffield and then the scenery changed to the pretty Peaks.

Karsten and I all excited on the bus... can you tell?

We all admired the scenery for a while, but it really didn't take long before the rickety bus and the narrow, winding roads began to take their toll... and unfortunately, the bus trip was to last an hour! About halfway through, Patrick warned us that he might not reply to us if we spoke, because he was concentrating on not being sick. He considered moving downstairs, but didn't want to face the stairs while the bus was moving. I was feeling really queasy myself, and Karsten's face had changed colour. We must have looked really interesting as a group! Finally, Chatsworth came into view. It was magical. I was happy too, because as soon as I got off the bus and got used to still ground again, my hangover disappeared with my motion sickness. Like Charlie Sheen, I was bi-winning.

We decided that we wanted to see the house and gardens, so headed in to the house first. After paying the admission, we took photos on the stairs before we even got into the house proper. Elizabeth and I were super excited... the boys less so, but excited anyway - probably because they hadn't yet learned what P&P fans we are, and because we hadn't gone crazy on the photos.

Yet.

We wandered through the house, taking lots (and I mean lots) of photos - Elizabeth and I spent a lot of time spotting things from the film, including the statue of the veiled lady:

And generally revelling in the splendour of the house. We spent a good couple of hours admiring the rooms, furniture and art. It was so beautiful, but so rich! It's hard to imagine people still living there, but they do. It's really amazing, and I would recommend anyone to visit. By the time we got to the last room - the statue room - we started having fun with the marble. I think they appreciated it.

I commented to Elizabeth that it was a pity that the statue of Mr Darcy wasn't still there (it's really of Matthew McFadyen, and was made for the film. So it's not really surprising that it wasn't sitting there next to the Apollos and Aphrodites). We spent a lot of time in the gift shop - to the point where the boys rolled their eyes and left us to it while we browsed. We stocked up on postcards, mugs with pictures of the house, and I got a magnet with a Mr Darcy quote on it (Patrick pretty much laughed me out of the shop when he saw it!). As I was paying for my goods, Elizabeth turned around and came face to face with the statue we'd mentioned earlier. This was cause for celebration, and defitinely needed to be caught on film. Luckily, we had the boys to take a photo of us with Mr Darcy. Living the dream.

After that, we all went and grabbed a light lunch and sat and ate in the sunshine outside before going for a wander through the gardens. If I'd thought the house was huge, the gardens were beyond comprehension. They're totally amazing and incredibly beautiful - a mix of manicured lawns, fountains and light forest. We went up and looked at the fountain for a while (it was quite cool, and had a waterfall type thing leading towards the house), then decided to meander through the gardens. It was around this time that we realised Karsten's love for nature - he led us down this little path that was really pretty and looked kind of like a fairy path, but ended up leading nowhere. We're pretty sure it was actually a maintenance path. Patrick and Karsten suggested climbing over a wall to get our bearings, but Elizabeth and I pointed out that we were both wearing tights, making this difficult. So we turned around and jumped a small creek instead.



It was when we were wandering down a slope (and Patrick lost his footing and nearly ran all the way back to the house, while using some colourful language) that we decided that Karsten was half mountain goat. He was just totally in his element in the gardens, and seemed to be able to climb anything! We kept on going, taking lots (and lots and lots) of photos, including one where it appears that homage is being paid to Patrick's crotch, that was taken purely by accident! The weather had well and truly warmed up by this point as well, and we were all down to tshirts for one of the first times since we'd arrived in the UK - it was about as close to idyllic as you can get in Derbyshire!

We ended up at the iconic view of Chatsworth, but unfortunately our view was obscured by inconsiderate scaffolding. Still, it was Pemberley!! We went and watched some sheep for a while... they were all heading off to get their evening meal, and they're just funny to watch, really. After that, we decided that it was time for some jumping photos in front of the Chatsworth lake.

The thing with jumping photos is that they're a lot of fun, but can also be a bit annoying to try and take. We had Patrick's and Elizabeth's cameras going, and Patrick was trying to capture the moment. Elizabeth and I were jumping so much that we were getting really tired! Karsten came out of left field and caught it at the right moment... clearly, he has a gift. The final product I think reflects the excitement of the day:

It wasn't over for Elizabeth though, and it took me another couple of goes to get one of her and Patrick jumping. Worth it. After that, we decided that it was probably home time. Typically, it was only as we were leaving that we discovered that there's actually a maze in the gardens - I guess we'll just have to go back to explore it! We headed back to catch our bus home, and thankfully it was a much smaller so motion sickness wasn't an issue! Unfortunately, it was also the Struggle Bus that didn't seem to like going up hills any faster than about 30kms/hr. Fun times.

When we finally got home, Karsten and Patrick bought a pizza and came to my flat to eat it. We filled Elizabeth from my flat and Shannon in on our adventures, and then waited to hear from Massi (from whom we were bumming dinner. He's a really good cook, and I wanted pasta!), and when we eventually got it, Fiona arrived home and joined us and filled us in on her adventures in London. Later on, Elizabeth and I went back up to my room and had popcorn and watched Pride and Prejudice, which was even better now that we'd been to parts of Pemberley! We cursed Jane Austen for writing such a perfect story (that gets both Elizabeth and I every time. Sometimes I wonder if we were separated at birth), and I know I at least went to bed satisfied with my day spent chasing Mr Darcy.