Harewood House

Saturday I was out and about heading to another garden visit.  I was walking to the bus stop and got caught in a random rain shower which soaked me but I did manage to capture a photo of the rainbow that followed(yeah).  I got on the 36 bus in Harrogate and a few stops later I was at Harewood house. 

 Being a large estate I walked down the country lane that lead to the house.  The sides of the road were lined with fields fillled with sheep.  I came around the corner to the first glimpses of the house.  What the house it is!  Great houses like these were built on slavery and usually sugar.  As I reached the house an old car was pulling up it was being rented by a couple who were getting married at the property that day.  It was cool to see the car in that setting. 

 The house hadn't opened yet but I was content to look around the porperty; that was why I was there.  I checked out the back of the house first which was a very formal terrace garden.  Right now it was planted with purple and white hyacinth.  I continued to explore the estate and discovered their bird garden which included several birds including penguins and my favorite flamingos!!!  The path from the bird garden led me to the walled garden which was planted with all the fruit and vegetables.  It was very large and it needed to be to provide enough food for the estate back in its glory days.  After that I wandered back through the himilayan garden where I saw the small waterfall and to get to it I walked across a line of stones that made a bridge which I was quite afraid to falling into the stream below. 

After checking out all of the estate it was time to check out the house.  Unfortunatley I can't show you any pictures as we were not able to take any but believe me it was incredible.  The detail and money that went into that house were incredible.  We were able to walk around the estat upstairs which had bedrooms and dining rooms.  The library was at the back of the house and looked out over the formal terrace garden.  It would be pretty nice to site and read a book with that kind of view outside.  After checking out the upstair we were able to look at the downstairs which was the heart of the house this included the kitchen, pantry area, and china storage.  This was my favorite part of the hosue it would be amazing to see the house run like it was back in the day. 

That brought my day to an end I got back on the bus and it was back to Harrogate.  This is a picture of me riding on the second floor of a proper British double decker bus.  I was able to ride in the front seat for most of the ride back.  So weird but awesome!!!!