Friday, September 21, 2012

Driving Home and Castle Howard...

The drive home was really the only time we had any rain or cloudy skies the whole trip, so we were very lucky...

That purple haze is all heather in bloom...

It's hard to capture the scale, since it was SO VAST!, but if you look in the center of this picture, those little white specks, are sheep!  Amazing...

This is the heather close up...It's a deeper purple than I thought it would be...

Castle Howard had a series of gate houses and was surrounded by walls...you can tell they were planned for horses passing through, not cars!

We rode a little tram to the house from the entrance.  The boys loved it!

Will was actually really bored going through the house, I however, had a great time!

This is by far the fanciest commode I have ever seen...

I wondered how many babies had been rocked in this intricately carved cradle...

They had an incredible collection of marble statues, it seriously rivaled the collections of the museums we saw in Provence!  In a home! That still has CHILDREN living in it!  I can't even imagine...




This was looking across the balcony into the great hall...



Looking up from the balcony into the dome..

An original painting of King Henry the 8th...

I was fascinated by what this wooden lady could have been used for.  I asked and they said it was used as a fire screen at times, but mostly they were placed in upstairs windows as sort of an early burglar deterrent.  People couldn't tell if someone was really home or not, if they saw a lady in the window.  (Unless they were smart enough to stay there a while and watch)

This room seriously killed me.  The silk on the furniture is the same as the silk on the walls.  It was amazing.  I can't imagine how much that must have cost...

This was the family's private chapel.  Can you imagine?  I can't imagine having a church in my home that is fancier than most churches in the world!


The Atlas Fountain...

The view of the house from the fountain...





After the fountain we stopped for lunch, where I had one of the best scones I have ever had in my life...

This was another folly, a temple.  Many estates had these put up in the early 1800's.  They were to amuse visitors, and a way to spend money if you had too much...( :

We returned that night to the cottage, and then packed up, spent the next day packing and then flew out really, really early the next morning. 

Robin Hood's Bay...

Robin Hood's Bay was exactly what you would imagine a little English Seaside Village would be...

I had heard that these cliffs were fantastic for fossil seeking and they were right!! The only problem was you had to be really careful because they were constantly falling apart and dropping large chunks from high above you...Eeek!

We found lots of cool stuff.  This shell was perfectly preserved, in fossil form...I love how you can see the stripes!

You can see how the stone was super flaky all around the fossilized parts...

While Will, Jason, and Mallory dug around in the rocks I tried to keep Charlie busy.  He was happy as a clam!


Sampling the briney treats of the sea...

We stayed as the sun was setting, and as the light changed it just got prettier and prettier...



Charlie chased Mallory up the coast, he was coming after me too with his sea weedy little hands and loved it when I would scream!


Mallory found this Nautilus fossil...

and we caught this little crab...

William had a ball, and was filthy but happy, which is all that matters!

Whitby...

Whitby Abbey is yet another example of the ruin caused by King Henry and his buddy Cromwell...

For some reason, right next to the Abbey, these horses were pastured.  This one was friendly...

A little too friendly.  I seriously wondered if I was going to have to buy Aunt Tissa a new shirt at the gift shop!

The view from the Abbey...



For dinner we parked downtown and walked by the harbor...So pretty!


We saw the Gypsy's taking the donkeys home from the beach for the night...I am so happy I saw real gyppos!

We liked this sign!

We spent the night at an Anglican Convent that also hosted people in nice simple rooms..The garden's were lovely!

Mom and Tissa played Beverly Hillbillies and waved for the camera...The place was so nice, and they served a full English breakfast, which was huge!