Afternoon tea, miss? (uh, no thank you)

Two things on the schedule today.  Chatsworth House was first up (http://www.chatsworth.org).  There was the house and gardens to see.  We chose the gardens first, since we didn't want to rush through the house to make it to high tea.  The gardens were very sculpted and...well.... green.  Only a few flowers were in bloom yet- gorgeous peonies and roses (hey, I know those by name!).  There was also a fantastic rock garden with HUMONGOUS rocks and plants.  My favorite part was going through an archway that was covered with a flower like wisteria but yellow.  Even had fun with my color function on my camera!

   

 

 

      

Then we had afternoon tea.  Not my cup of tea but when in England........The tiny, crustless, cucumber and egg sandwiches were ok.  I didn't adventure more than a bite of the dessert.  I did take a couple of sips of tea...then switched to water.  Unfortunately I poured sparkling water (also not my cup of tea) instead of spring water, so I couldn't drink that either.  Oy vey.

As soon as I could scramble out to the house, I did and it did not disappoint.  It was lavish.  The decorations, what you would imagine.  Gilded staircases, sparkling chandeliers, dark woods,paintings galore.  The collection of stones and gems was another sort of wonderful.  Someone liked their rocks!  The Duke and Duchess live there but we only got to see rooms they don't use.  They were housing an art exhibit on different chairs.  The one below was QUITE entertaining.  Like a roller coaster ride.  I'm not going to lie, I had visions of me falling backwards off it.  By then end, I wanted one of my own!

To end the day, we visited Hardwich Hall (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hardwick/).  After seeing Chatsworth, this one was a little underwhelming.  The long walk helped build anticipation. The building was quite formidable.  Not the biggest we've seen but not the smallest.  It seemed as if the house had more windows then walls.  The inside was a bit dark- probably to protect the plethora of tapestry that could be found throughout the house.  It seemed as if EVERY wall was covered in tapestries.  There was some furniture too.  Hard to put a finger on why it wasn't as thrilling but, it wasn't.