Let's try this blog thing again...

A few weeks ago, Emily and I decided to take one last weekend to travel before short days and cold weather trap us in Cambridge for the winter. We'd been wanting to go camping for some time, and Emily has wanted to see Derbyshire ever since the latest Pride and Prejudice film was released, and we decided to combine the two.

So we rented a car, packed it completely full of camping equipment, and drove out on Saturday morning. We arrived in Derbyshire about three hours later, and dropped off our camping gear at the B&B/campground that we would be staying at for the weekend. From there, we drove on to the village of Hathersage, which is just to the south of Stanage Edge, a long cliff-face featured in P&P.

The view of Derbyshire and rock climbers from the top of the cliff

The cliff was swarming with rock climbers - according to Wikipedia the cliff is over 5km long, and I don't think there was a stretch of more than 50 feet without a brightly dressed Brit clinging to it while several others watched.

We walked along the top of the cliff for awhile, stopping to take pictures and picnic. We also made a game of trying to find the spot where Elizabeth Bennet stands in the big, sweeping shot of the Peak District. We're pretty sure this is it:

Emily's 'Elizabeth Bennet' pose

After getting our fill of scrambling over boulders and avoiding climbing ropes, we headed back to the campsite to set up camp and cook dinner. The campsite consisted of three mown fields surrounded by (but thankfully separate from) several cattle fields, but with no borders or privacy for separate tentsites. There were several tents already set up, so we chose one of the fields that was unoccupied, and luckily had no neighbors for the whole weekend.

Matthew relaxing by the fire after a hard day's drive.

Now, Emily has a few conditions when it comes to camping, and one of those (which I happen to agree with) is that it isn't really camping if you don't have a campfire. Most of the campgrounds in Derbyshire don't allow open flames, but we'd made sure that the campground we chose would allow fires. We did have to rent a 'fire basket' for the weekend, but it actually worked very well, as it kept everything nicely contained and high enough off the ground to keep us nice and warm.

The next day started off pretty dreary (cold and rain), but that just made the breakfast tacos eaten under an umbrella that much more delicious. After fastening down camp for what looked to be a day full of rain, we headed out for some more sightseeing. Our bad weather contingency was to head to Chatsworth House, a stately home that looks like this:


The visit to Chatsworth House fit in nicely with our Jane Austen-themed weekend, as it was the house used for Pemberly in Pride and Prejudice. The house is beautiful, and we spent more than two hours touring the rooms and galleries. Even better than the house, however, were the gardens. Two hours in the house may seem like a lot, but we walked through the gardens for more than three (most of it in the rain). The grounds had everything - ponds, flower gardens, a hedge maze, and lots of little sitting areas and gazebos scattered throughout the woods. It's far and away our favorite stately home that we've yet visited.

After Chatsworth we drove on to Buxton, an old Roman spa town. It's a very pretty town, and we spent some time looking through the old buildings and browsing through an antique book fair. However, we were pretty worn out from all the walking we had done, so we headed back to the campsite for an early dinner and another big campfire.

On Monday morning, we had planned to drive back to Cambridge, but had a slight hiccup in that the car wouldn't start. Here's a quick lesson for driving in the UK: unleaded petrol pumps have a green handle, while diesel pumps have a black handle. In the US, diesel is green and unleaded is black. I learned this the hard way by accidentally putting a few gallons of diesel into our unleaded rental car. So the car was towed to Buxton for repair. I was really nervous about how much all the work would cost, as the local VW dealer quoted us £230 for the labor. But we managed to find a mechanic just outside Buxton who was absolutely an answer to prayer. He offered to do all of the work for £70, including the price for new parts, and arranged rides for us into the town center and back so we didn't have to spend the entire day waiting in his shop. So we got to spend an extra day in Buxton while the fuel line was drained, and then headed back to Cambridge that evening instead.

Overall, we had a great weekend, despite some bad weather and car trouble. The peak district is by far our favorite place that we've visited, and I'm sure we'll be headed back sometime in the future.

And this was my contribution to the weekend...

Easter Visit

Over Easter weekend, Emily and I played host to my old roommate Joel. Joel's been studying in Spain for the past few months, and he decided to visit Cambridge for his Easter break. Since he's studying architecture, there was plenty of sightseeing for him to do. Joel also brought along his awesome digital SLR camera, a Canon Rebel XSi. The following pictures I stole from his Facebook page.

The Pembroke Library

The Jerwood Library

The Chapel at St. John's

We also took a trip out to Ely to see the cathedral. Joel was suitably impressed, and took lots and lots of pictures.

The Octagonal Lantern at Ely Cathedral

In true Cambridge style, we took Joel to afternoon tea at Auntie's tea shop, and followed it up the next day with a morning punt trip along the backs.

Here we're punting up the river, with the Bridge of Sighs behind us.

Joel also got a chance to try his hand at punting.

Another picture of the Jerwood library, this time from the river.

I'll hopefully have some more pictures to add to this, once Joel uploads the rest. His camera can do some really impressive stuff. Once again, it's a Canon Rebel XSi. That's X S i.

Fun Times

We just bought a TV! I have no idea how we're going to fit it in our apartment, but we're really excited about having one again. I don't know how much British television we'll be watching, though, what with the licensing and all. But it'll be great for all the movies and American TV that we watch. Plus, (and here's the best part) it means we'll be able to bring back our Wii when we go home in June. :D So, if we aren't blogging much in July, you can blame the creators of Guitar Hero and Lego Star Wars.

Some Paris Photos

Our room at the Hotel du Champ de Mars

Our view of the Eiffel Tower at night

The Eiffel Tower from the top of the Arc de Triomphe

Montmartre - where people sell Eiffel Tower keychains and African love knots, play jazz or breakdance, and block stairways to force tourists to take surveys.


Notre Dame - some great crepe places nearby, too!

The Thinker, at the Musee Rodin.

The Musee d'Orsay, our favorite stop of the trip. It's a beautiful museum built from a converted train station, as you can see above.

A Chance for Future Mockery

As I am sure you are in the habit of hearing, Matthew and I are trying to be better about blogging. Ha!...you might say. Well, Ha!...you might be right. But I'm trying to devise a system. So, bear with me.

First and foremost: our trip to Paris. I'm a lucky girl to have gotten the kind of guy that takes her to Paris for their second anniversary. (Not Paris, Texas; we're talking about the Real Deal.) We stayed at this lovely hotel off of Rue Clair, just a block from the Champ du Mars and within view of the Eiffel Tower. (Stayed tuned for pictures.) We took the train through the Chunnel Saturday morning and got into Paris around lunch time. We spent most of the day just walking around, enjoying the sights, and thinking of all the movies that we know set in Paris. We ended up with a picnic dinner at Montmartre, though the overcast skies made the sunset a little disappointing. Apparently, on the first Sunday of every month, most of the museums and attractions of Paris are free. So Sunday was spent cramming in as much as we could. We hit the Arc de Triumph, which, by the way, you need a ticket for, even though it's free. :/ Then we went to the Rodin Museum. It would have been neat to see it in the summer; a lot of the statues are outside within the garden that surrounds the main building, but unfortunately it was still too cold for anything to really look lush. The highlight of our trip was the Orsay Museum. I had never been before but had always wanted to go. We spent about four or five hours wandering in there. Though only one floor was open due to construction, I don't think we could have stayed much longer than we did. So, we've decided we'll have to go back once the other floors are reopened. Monday we devoted to the Louvre. We would have done it for free the day before, but we figured that would be just too much for one day. Plus, it's about the only thing open on Mondays. It's a little daunting how much that place actually holds. We really just hit a few of the exhibits, though we saw a lot. That afternoon, we walked down to Pont Neuf and ate crepes at Notre Dame. Quintessential Paris. Tuesday morning, we made one last stop at this little bakery on the corner (where we had Pan Au Chocolats every morning) and headed home.

Both Matthew and I had been to Paris before. But my previous experiences were always a part of a large tour group; I wasn't exactly submerged in a culture. So it was nice not having schedules and just getting to pick up a baguette and walk the streets, taking it all in. It was interesting to hear our French. In the end, we decided it was a lot easier to simply ask in French whether the person to whom we were speaking could speak English. Nobody seemed really offended, and it was definitely more reliable communication. Overall, it was a picturesque weekend away. The bar certainly has been set.....

A Good Day

On Monday, Emily and I heard some stressful news: the British Airways Cabin Crew union had voted to strike from December 22nd to January 2nd. This would have canceled our flight home on December 23rd. Needless to say, we had a stressful week.

But Thursday was a good day. To start, in the afternoon a judge approved an injunction against the union, which puts the strike on hold until at least February. Great news, seeing as we're both really excited to be coming home for Christmas. And the other good thing about Thursday was the four inches of snow - which really makes all of the cold and windy weather much more enjoyable.

Here are some pictures I took on the way to work Friday morning: