So now that I've explained that, my excitement over Wednesday's day trip will make more sense and have some more significance. On Wednesday, we travelled to Chawton and saw the Jane Austen house and where she attended church. Then we travelled to Stourhead gardens (where Darcy proposes to Elizabeth Bennet in the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice). After that, we traveled to Bath (a location of many of Austen's books). So, as you can tell, it was a fantastic day for an Austen lover like myself!
First, Chawton:
It was literally like I was walking through a Jane Austen novel. It was a gorgeous English countryside town. There was a large manor house, a parish church attached to it, and a cottage where Jane lived herself. After seeing this scenery, it was so easy to imagine what Austen was envisioning while she was writing the novels.
I especially enjoyed the Jane Austen house. They had some fun, interactive parts like writing with a quill and grinding lavender for a little satchel. They even let me play on the pianoforte! It was a dream come true! Along with that, they had furniture from that time period in the house, along with some of Jane Austen's things as well. It was a fun little house and travel back in time to the Regency Period.
In front of the Jane Austen home
Playing the piano forte
Being quite proper
Next, Stourhead Gardens:
It was like walking through a garden of Eden! It was absolutely incredible. It was the perfect weather for it, somewhat sunny and not too chilly. It was simply breathtaking. It was nice to have a few hours to take it easy and enjoy the beauty of nature all around me.
I also loved standing in the place where Pride and Prejudice was filmed. As I was walking around, I definitely had the soundtrack playing in my head and was replaying the scene in my head (I had just rewatched the movie the night previous).
Katie and I also got to talk to one of the rangers (for lack of a better word. tour guide might be more appropriate) for a while. It was fun to talk to an actual Brit about how loud Americans are, what she thought about the Olympics coming to London, her favorite things to do in the area, and stuff like that. She was quite friendly and it was lovely talking to her.
Then, Bath:
We got to go to the old Roman baths while we were there. It was really cool to see such an old place so well in tact. The architecture was really cool and the hot springs itself were as well. You could literally see steam rising over the baths. I also got to taste of the so-called "restorative" bath waters. I don't know if restorative would exactly be the word I would use for them. Maybe if restorative means water that tasted like rotten salt water that would definitely be the word I would use. I'd probably come up with a slightly different name like "This water's kind of, um, Interesting". Although, restorative does have a better ring to it...... either way, it was a good experience.
We were really rushed for time while in Bath, but I absolutely loved the city. It's a medium to large city nestled in this lush, green area of England. The buildings feel like the British version of Italian buildings. It was a cool cultural mixture. And also, I had the best meat pie of my life while I was there. Good food is always a plus.
A delicious pasty!
It was also fun to see parts of Bath that played into Austen's stories like the Pump Room that's so vital in Northanger Abbey and so much more.
Day in Austenland? A total success! What a wonderful day!
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