Chatsworth

Hello and Welcome to Chatsworth. Those are some damn beautiful girls in the fountain on the grounds. Left to Right: Lindsey, Kysha, Cassie, Kaari.



This is a piece by Frank Gehry that Tiffany&Co. had him design. I love Frank Gehry's work and I love Tiffany so it was cool to see. Also I thought it was interesting they had such a modern piece displayed in Chatsworth.


I was surprised to see this also in a older English manor house. I'm not really sure if its been there a while or what but I really like Budhas and this style so it was cool to see all of this all mixed together. He looks so happy!



That is Mr. Darcy. We are so in love! Look at that gaze. Ladies...be jealous.
Anyway a little background. They have a nice sculpture collection at Chatsworth and a few scenes of Pride and Prejudice were filmed there (along with everywhere else we've gone) so they made that sculpture and added it to the collection so that it was like it was Mr. Darcy's collection in the movie. I hope that makes sense. If not..sorry..i'm tired.

Blenheim

Hello all,
This weekend was pretty fun. As you can see already and I blogged about Stonehenge at the beginning of the weekend. On Saturday I made my way out to Mottingham to stay with the Milburns for Sat night and Sunday. Me and the boys did a little golfing at the driving range and then enjoyed a relaxing evening watching movies. Sunday was church and a great Father's Day dinner provided by Glen. Its very nice to have some familiar faces and time to just enjoy life and not be sightseeing all the time. Great to spend time with their family also.


Today is Monday, the first day of our last week in London. :( I'm sad but it will be interesting to move on and see Paris and Italy! We went to Blenheim Palace which is my favorite of the ones we've seen. I forgot to mention that in a lot of these big houses and palaces or castles or whatever it may be, we aren't allowed to take photos so thats why the majority are of the exterior. We did rapid sketches on our tour though so if any of you see them maybe you'll get an idea of the interior..maybe..


The grounds were very pretty. Large expanses of just green grass but well landscaped and maintained. We did a few silly pictures today. Sometimes we just get in these moods. Early day off today so we made our way back down to London and went shopping! Dinner..now home. Tomorrow we're doing Chatsworth so stay tuned. Miss you all!

Stonehenge

FRIDAY!! wahoo. Today was a free day for our group so a few of us decided to go see stonehenge because we weren't going to be doing that trip with our bigger group. We ended up leaving the hotel about 10 and got to Salisbury and on a bus to Stonehenge about 1. Right as we started walking around Stonehenge and taking pictures it started to rain! Hard. I actually was stupid and didn't have a rain jacket or an umbrella so I pretty much got soaked! As you'll see from my pictures. We kept all our valuables under umbrellas though and even though it was rainy we got some good pictures because there weren't very many people walking around in the rain. It cleared up a few minutes later though and thats when the big rush of people came out. I very much enjoyed going there. Its definatelly very cool to see something so old and so mysterious. Just makes you wonder what exactly it was used for. Even thought they have theories and probably pretty accurate ones at that it would be interesting to know more about the people and how they built it and what for. Dad, I hope my pictures aren't too disappointing. You should come here and do a photo shoot. You'd definatelly be able to get some really good ones! After our little day trip I met up with Glen and Kyall back in London to play a little croquet in a very nice park. That was about the extent of my Friday but it was nice to relax and do things at a little slower pace. Peace.

Cambridge

Today we went to Cambridge. Another long train ride. This morning I actually had trouble waking up and felt out of it for the better half of the morning. It was a 2 mile walk from the train to the travel office where we met up with our tour guides and split into two groups. A walking tour of Cambridge was great and we got a lot of history behind the Colleges that are there. Its a bit College town so a very young population and a great crowd! We stopped off at Cathedrals and a Museum..same old same old kinda deal. A quick break in the middle for lunch which we ate at a little pub that American soldiers used to eat at all the time I guess. All I know is that there was good food. After the tour we took a punting trip down the river/canal. Just like a gondola trip but not Italian. Looks like working there would keep you quite toned! It was relaxing to be able to just sit and enjoy the ride for a bit though! The punting was our last appointment for the day so we got to just browse some shops and the markets and I ended up buying a pair of earings. Maybe a bit on the expensive side but I decided to treat myself and I really liked them a lot. Just waiting for a good time to wear them! This blog is a bit short but I think the pictures will be better for everyone to see. A picture says a thousand words right? haha. Until next time!

Hardwick Hall & Haddon Hall

A very early start at 7 am this morning! Off again on the train for about 2 hours to get to some more old houses where royalty or the really wealthy lived. Don’t get me wrong they are all very interesting but all the history and a lot of stuff all runs together because its all very similar. Hardwick Hall actually has two houses to visit. One is the ruins of Old Hardwick and then New Hardwick. They were only built a few years apart but Old Hardwick was abandoned and just not looked after so it just deteriorated. Both houses were very grand though. Hard to imagine having that much space! I guess they lived with a lot more people though like servants and cooks so it wouldn’t be as lonely. New Hardwick is one of the first buildings with that many windows in the structure though. The way I like to live. The ceilings were also about 30 ft high which amazes me. So much space!
Haddon Hall was our last stop but a very beautiful tudor building! Movies like Pride and Prejudice and Princess Bride were filmed there. My favorite part of the tour was the back garden which was full of beautiful roses and all sorts of flowers! The back of house was very pretty also with creepers and flowers up the walls and just very beautiful. Its is hard to imagine that long ago and see that they had these beautiful structures and to get an idea of how they would cook and function in the Medieval Period.
We had a bit of a glitch on the ride home. We had a long day on Tuesday so everyone was anxious to get home and be home a little earlier on Wednesday night but a little too anxious. We got on the train just before ours on the same platform and ended up in Bristol, two hours outside of London! I had fallen asleep and woke up ready to be back in London but instead found out we were headed to Bristol so I wasn’t very happy especially since I just woke up but it ended up being a fun ride. Just took about 3 hours longer than we thought to get home. Mom, I heard you were excited I was there because of your mission but I’m sorry to say all I saw was the train station. We arrived home safely and very tired. The end? Haha

Salisbury

Happy Birthday Cassie May! We had an early start today at 7:30 off to Waterloo station where we took an hour and a half train ride to Salisbury. From there we caught a bus to the Wilton House. You can read a little bit of the history below because it was one of my presentations but for the non history part…the current Earl of Pembroke is a really hot 29 yr old bachelor who lives in that house. I guess he was at the café but I missed him. Just saw the pictures of him around the house. Very attractive. Unfortunately he has a girlfriend. Haha. But after a tour of the house we walked around the grounds for a bit which actually had the most awesome play ground I’ve ever been on! You’ll see pictures below so I won’t go into much detail but pretty much, trampoline, zipline, boat swing, tire swings. Good play ground for all ages needless to say. Dad, he probably has been sued a few times ;). Not necessarily very safe but no one from our group got hurt. I forgot to mention that today ended up being a very beautiful day with great weather in London!
Our next stop was Salisbury Cathedral. Very, very, beautiful. A lot of places right now have scaffolding up to do construction or whatever else so I couldn’t even get a very good photo of the whole building. Anyway we had a tour guide who was awesome! Just a cute little old guy but we first did a general tour of the cathedral just learning history and seeing all the detail. For the second half of our Salisbury visit we had another tour of the attic so up lots and lots of spirals stairs to the tower, we didn’t go all the way to the top (thank goodness) but we were very high. We got a lot of “behind the scenes” history if you will being up in the attic and on the roof. It was a little unnerving going up so many stairs when you could see straight down but the views were awesome from the top and it was very pretty. Again it was a really pretty day so all up it was a good day in Salisbury.
On our way back to the station we stopped off at a very good Italian restaurant and I got the Mezzaluna di Spinaci I believe is how you spell it. It was pretty much ricotta and spinach ravioli. I kind of splurged on dinner and got a very good dessert also but it was so worth it. That is all I have to report on Tuesday besides the train ride home and all the other preparations for another day ahead.

the pictures are out of order. Sorry! but they are all the pics from salisbury at the cathedral and wilton house!

Design Museum/Tate Modern

Well here I am still in London and loving it! There is so much to see that I could walk around forever and still find new things!
Waking up is always a challenge but its getting more just to the I don't want to get out of bed because I'm lazy not because its too hard to wake up. Just cause I'd rather sleep for a bit longer but when we finally did wake up all of us were in a particularly laughy mood while getting ready. Girls tend to get a bit silly but we got ready and downstairs by 9.
First stop was the theatre to try to get tickets to Wicked but with no avial. It was going to be about £60 so it just wasn't worth it just yet. We have to get there at a particular time to get them half off. So another day. After that we went to the Design Museum which was a little disappointing because I guess the coolest exhibit was closed but it was kinda interesting and the gift shop had some really cool stuf to look at.
After a quick bite to eat (I had a baguette with brie,basil and tomato on it) we continued on to the Tate Modern and were free to look around at our own pace and then were free for the rest of the day. The Tate Modern was just quick. It was cool to see some of the stuff I've learned about in Art History but a lot of it was just stuff we skimmed over. Not really the day to just sit and chill but we soaked it up a bit and saw what we could without having a ticket for some of the other exhibits that they have going. Some of us may end up going back for the Dali exhibit.
Over the bridge to St Pauls is where the rest of the day took us. I decided to just have a quick look and not pay the £7.50 for the entrance to the cathedral just yet but one day again maybe I'll go back. St. Pauls Cathedral is where that old lady in Mary Poppins is feeding the pidgeons. It was nice to sit and relax and just do some sketching. Relaxing afternoon and a quick trip back to the hotel. I'm off for a bite to eat and more sketching before an early night in before an early morning tomorrow to get to Wilton House. Keep checking my blog and comment me or email me! I love to get them all. Later!

Pic 1 Me and the Tower Bridge (the one everyone thinks is the London Bridge) and btw..i don't look happy but I was
Pic 2 A poster/print at the Design Museum. I liked it a lot.
Pic 3 Me standing next to a hot futuristic motor bike (design museum)
Pic 4 Tate Modern

Free Day

Well this will just be a short one of my weekend but sleeping in on Saturday was amazing needless to say. Rolling out of bed at about noon feels really good after being up early everyday and running around like crazy! On Saturday a Cassie, Zach, Chance and I went to a cafe for lunch and then were trying to find this acoustic all dayer concert but when we did me and Zach decided it wasn't really our style so we decided to rock OUTSIDE the concert. haha.. (thats our little attempt at ipod advertising *see pic*) After that Zach and I met up with Glen and Kyall and walked down Oxford St and saw all the good shopping. We stopped into Hamley's, a really big toy store, and played around in there for a while. The next stop was an arcade where we just played some more games. It was a very child like day but very fun! We won some tickets at the arcade and got a whole bag full of bouncy balls! We stopped at Picadilly Circus which is a famous corner you've all probably seen in the movies. But incase you haven't you can see me posing there. Leicester Square came next where we got Mr. Wu's Chow Mein and took it to Trafalgar Square to eat. (Trafalgar Square seems to come into the mix a lot..haha.)
Sunday morning I got a ride to church with Kyall and his grandparents. They have a long drive because they live father out but I'm sure its far for everyone. But our drive was an hour and a half! The scariest part was when we were driving on the smallest road I've ever been on. Looked like a walking path more than road and they asked if I was scared and I said no not really but then they told me it was a TWO WAY road and as soon as they said that, sure enough comes another car driving the opposite way and squeezed past us. I was in shock! I have no idea how we fit! It was amazing. Church was good, nice to have variety and see how its done else where. When we got back to the house we had a little wait for dinner so Glen and I fell asleep for I guess like 3 hours! We tried to figure it out later but we're not sure. The nap was also a nice break from the run around. What better to follow a nap than a nice big roast English dinner? It was delicious. Just roast everything and sooo sooo good. It was great to have actual food. I loved it. haha. Peter is an excellent cook. After the meal Glen was nice enough to catch the train (or trains..plural because of all the stops transfers and a little more out of our way last night due to const) with me all the way back to my hotel to make sure I was safe. And that was the end of my weekend.
Pic 1 Me and Zach Rocking OUTside the concert
Pic 2 Me and a Lego Man Transformer thing
Pic 3 Picadilly Circus and me looking hot
Pic 4 Chow Mein on Trafalgar Square.
Pic 5 Car to Church (Glen and Kyall making fun of how I sometimes smile in pics..showing lots of teeth.)

Hampton Court, Sir John Sloane, British Museum

Dear Blogger readers everywhere,
Sorry this has taken me so long. Obviously its not quite Friday the 8th but I am now ready to blog about it.
Our first journey began on the tube as usual, we took off from our hotel and took the tube to the closest rail station to connect to a train to get us to Hampton Court the once apon a time residence of Henry VIII. Beautiful grounds and just such amazing detail. It was originally built in the Tudor Style but when some other royals lived there (sorry I forgot who. Mary II or something) they reconstructed it and made some of it Baroque style (also very beautiful). Only problem was that they ran out of funds and the Queen died so the King at the time just stopped. It makes it unique because you can see both styles juxtaposed next to eachother. There were also beautiful grounds and this vineyard thing that was started so long ago that the original vine is the oldest ever! Isn't that crazy! There was so much to see but we had other things to do!
The next adventure was back in the city at a place called Sir John Sloane's Museum. He was some architect who collected all these plaster casts and all these statues from museums and what not but there was sooooo many little artifacts and stone things PACKED into one little house that he didn't want to turn over to his rebellious children. I couldn't even believe how much stuff was in this house. IT WAS AMAZING!
Third and final activity for the day was the British Museum which was like a bigger version of John Sloanes Museum. haha. Obviously it was a bigger deal though. I met Glen and Kyall there and we wandered and laughed and caused all sorts of trouble around the museum.. Its actually a huge..and i mean HUGE! facility that has sooooo much stuff. It was hard to do it at the end of the day because I was so tired already so I did some serious artifact browsing and took some pics but it was fun to see stuff that I've learned about.
That night me, Glen and Kyall ate at Garfunkels or some place and I had some lasagna and a chocolate milkshake (for my fam..it was very aussiesque i hope you understand but truthfully i like it better) after that we wandered around and went back to trafalgar square for some night pics and then down to westminster bridge maybe?? and then past the aquarium and london eye down back to jubilee bridge. Then home! Sleep and ready for a weekend of fun....
To be continued...

Pic 1 Hampton Court with a sign of Henry VIII
Pic 2 The Gardens my Wedding will be at.. haha jk..but those are the Hampton Court Gardens
Pic 3 The Oldest Vine
Pic 4 Me, Winnie, Miriam, Cassie at the British Museum
Pic 5 Me and the Rosetta Stone.. I look so happy.

West Minster Abbey, National Gallery, V&A

Why hello. So its Day 2 in London and still running strong. After a night of heavy sleep I woke up still feeling like my brain was made of cement but off again for a long and eventful day. We first went to Westminster Abbey, beautiful church where many famous and royal people are buried. Kinda weird cause your walking over tombs constantly. After that we continued on to The National Portrait Gallery and saw paintings by Cezanne, Toulouse Lautrec, Van Gough, Renoir and other ones I can't remember..i knew i'd forget but oh well. Lots of good artwork. Lunch followed with a 2pm rendezvous at the tkts where we then went to the V&A museum. Lots of cool stuff there like plaster copies of sculptures like David and The Moses and the Baptistry Doors at the Florence Cathedral..which i'll have pictures of in a few weeks! It was all really amazing. There was a lot more I could have seen but sooo much to do it so little time. We got our first assignments today and had to begin our sketches. Hopefully my skills will get better..hehe. They should right? After wandering around the core of London some more some of us found a sweet sushi bar that was reasonably priced..for here at least. I have now almost mastered the Tube and actually feel quite at home in London. I love the big cities and how things run is quite similar to Sydney. Obviously a lot of difference too but lots of fun. I'm taking it all in and loving every second. We're trying to work out internet issues so my blog will get more consistant and I'm sorry for the lack of photos so far. Check yesterdays again for some photos and I'll add today's a little later. Keep the comments, emails or
whatever else coming! Love, Kaari
Pic 1 Westminister Abbey
Pic 2 The inner court yard of Westminster Abbey
Pic 3 Me in a phone booth
Pic 4 Lion at Trafalgar Square.
ps. my camera died so I didn't take as many pics..sorry!