Taking it easy

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This past weekend, we decided to take it a bit easier with regards to sightseeing. My sister had a couple of papers due early this week, so she wanted to be able to do some homework.

Saturday we went to the grocery store. Okay, that's not sightseeing, but it was a good accomplishment for us! Later that day, we went to Basildon Park House. It's just outside of Reading, so it was easy to get to. Very beautiful place. Unfortunately, there is scaffolding all around the exterior because they are cleaning the stonework. We were disappointed. This house was also used to film some of the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice. For those of you who know me well, I prefer the BBC version with Colin Firth. But it was cool to see this. Karen and I agreed that we need to watch the newer version again to find the scenes from this house. Also, there was a nice piano in the entry hall that had been donated. It had a sign that said to please play. After much encouragement, Karen finally sat down and played a couple of pieces. It was really cool! Quite a few people stopped what they were doing and listened. The volunteers that were in the surrounding rooms stepped in to listen as well. In fact, music was playing in another room and I noticed that someone turned the volume down while she was playing. My sister is SO talented! After we left Basildon, we tried to visit another place, but it was closed. We made the decision to head home so Karen could work on her papers and I could do laundry (yes, another fun aspect of the weekend!). :P

Sunday, we headed into London. Originally, we were going to take the train and then the Tube to the places. However, the Tube stops weren't close. I looked at the maps and figured out that we could drive in without any problems. It worked out really well because we got to visit 2 places instead of just 1. Our first stop was Marble Hill House. It is a Palladian structure (like Basildon Park) and was built by the mistress of George II. It was well furnished and there were notebooks for each floor giving details about the rooms. Lots of gold leaf! The other place we went to was Chiswick House, also in the Palladian style. I think we would have liked it better if we had gone there first, but it was slightly disappointing after seeing Marble Hill. This place didn't have any furnishings, but did have some paintings still on the walls as well as some decorations. The audio guide was good, so we were able to learn some history of the place. After that, we headed home. Karen then decided to head back to Oxford so she could finish her papers. I was really exciting and ironed clothes in preparation for the work week!

This next weekend will be really fun. I am keeping my nephews. My brother and sister-in-law are going to Rome to celebrate their 10th anniversary (early since the anniversary is in March). I will keep the boys from Friday afternoon until Monday night! Yippee!! :D

I will upload photos later, although, there are only a few.

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