Eurotrip: PEMBERLEY!
(Please excuse the squee that will ring in your ears throughout this post. I get like this sometimes.)
This is me at Pemberley!
PEMBERLEY!
It is a FINE prospect, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.
Yes. (Also, best face of the entire miniseries.)
Pemberley is about 35 minutes by train from Manchester. It was almost worth an iPhone to go! (It was not, actually.) (Bonus: I got to tell the cops that I wouldn’t be around that day because I was going to “Dahhhhhbyshire,” which is how the English say Derbyshire. I don’t know either. “Berkeley” is also “Bahhhkley.” They’re so weird.)
It’s not actually called Pemberley— it’s Lyme Park. But this is the only time you’ll hear me call it that. Only the outside of the house was in Pride & Prejudice, which I’m glad I found out in advance, because I would’ve been pissed. But I got my photo, and did the tour of the house anyway, since we were there.
We decided to walk from the train station to the house, which doesn’t sound bad except that once you make it to the gates of the house, you still have a mile to go, up a hill. And my friend Kristin and I both used to live in San Francisco. Make sure your utility belt of choice includes the optional grappling hook.
We were late for the regular house tour, so we did a tour called “Secret Passageways and Hidden Hallways,” (Um, that’s the same thing twice. Right?) through the servants’ areas. It was very Gosford Park, which was confusing… had me mixing up my Clive Owens and Colin Firths… at the same time… excuse me a moment.
Hi. Is it hot in here?
Anyhoo, this place used to have its own brewery (currently being restored— soon there will be Pemberley beer! Okay, not really. But someone should totally make Pemberley beer), and then a ton of secret passageways and staircases and entire floors that the residents and guests would never see because it was servants-only. Servants had to carry steaming hot water up three ENORMOUS flights of stairs, or else no bath.
All the National Trust employees at Pemberley live on site in private apartments, in the house. EXCUSE ME? THAT IS AMAZING. There is even a family with two little girls whose front door is right on the main tour route. We bumped into them coming home and chatted a little. Turns out these girls have their own window seats. At PEMBERLEY. Six-year-old me was about to cut a bitch.
Then we walked back into town for a pint at the Dandy Cock.
Theme of the trip.
Another theme of the trip.
There was a smokin’ hot guy AND a puppy at the Dandy Cock but I didn’t get pictures. We had to be dragged out. Of the Dandy Cock. Yep, still funny.
