*: day iii: cold, delicious, painful, sleepy, remarkable, wet, stinky, unforgettable.

today was our big day in the peak district. if you aren't sure what exactly that means it is the setting and location for the pride & prejudice movie with keira knightley. not the seven year long one that the BBC made in like 1904. in fact, we went to see chatsworth manor which is, drumroll, MR DARCYS FREAKIN HOUSE. but i'm getting ahead of myself.

from the beginning.

so we drove for about three hours early this morning to get to the peak district for our walk about. the thing about walking here is that people actually do it on the ground. not just on the treadmill. it's a magical thing. its like people just get out of their cars, say "look theres a nice field, lets have a go at it" and theyre off. so that was our plan--to walk for 13.5 miles and have a nice lunch and whatnot at some place or other. however, summer is not summer in england. their summer is our november, like our rainy tuesday when you forgot your coat november. so we decided that instead of starting up the half marathon walk we would settle for a four mile climb up a giant sheep covered hill and then see how we felt about the weather. i now can say, from the comfort of one of nana's velvet lounge chairs, that it was all quite worth it. but. climbing up a gigantic beast of a hill when you're freezing and dodging cow pies and the sheep are looking at you like, "god, what are you doing here?" and you think you're about to fall because its so dang steep and if you do fall that's just it for you, theres no getting up at the bottom of the hill, theres just death, and you're not really sure where you're going because this isn't the route you planned for and...now i forget how i got started on this rant. anyway, it was difficult--not miserable--but difficult. and then: miserable. just when we were about to get to the top of what i can only assume is england's mount kilimangiro, it started to rain. like RAIN. we had one umbrella between the three of us and so we crouched down like frodo and sam on the rocks in front of mordor. please excuse all the lord of the rings references, i'm really not that big a fan it's just when you're out here you sort of feel like a character in one of tolkien's musings. anyway the storm isn't passing and we're at the top of a hill for goodness sakes, and so we decide to move down the hill and look for trees to take cover under. you all know me pretty well that's why you're reading this and that means you all know that all of this NATURE stuff is not. me.

so we walk all the way back to Ilam, which is where we left nana, at a castle tea room book store restaurant hostel thing. and then we drive to get lunch at a place called THE GEORGE. lord, knows who george was but it was very good to have a hot meal and i even got to wear one of the blankets that was just hanging over a chair at a table in the pub. so i was finally warm. finally. then we went off to the town of ashbourne, which is basically downtown franklin a la anglais. antique stores galore. then came matlock, which was really cool because it's in a valley kind of and it's along a river and EVERY store is an ice cream store. i really don't get it. i mean, i think the english consume only tea and ice cream and that's it. we left matlock to head for chatsworth. a.k.a. mr. darcy's house. if any of you come to england at any point do not leave the country till you have seen chatsworth. the movie just doesn't do it justice. first of all its huge, second of all, the duke of devonshire, who it belonged to, had the most amazing front yard you can imagine. theres a river and sheep and a bridge and a mosoleum looking thing. i mean dream come true. so after chatsworth we headed back home to shipston and had dinner at a Bengali restaurant. AMAZING. truly the greatest indian food i've ever had. i had this mango chicken kabbab thing that changed my life, i could eat it forever. and the little dad and son who run the place were the sweetest little people. it was heaven. and it made me regret all the racist things i say about seven elevens.

anyway, if you've actually read all of this you're amazing and i love you.