Day 5 - Rye to Derby

Today (April 6, 2009) was another travel day. We are heading north so we can spend a few days in York. To break up the drive we planned a few stops on the way. The first spot was for Drew and Drew only. He really needed to see the RAF museum in the north of London. Why? Well he knew that one of his favorite planes, the Messerschmitt 262 was on display. For those of you who don't know what this is, it was the first operational turbojet airplane ever. The German's used it in the closing days of WWII.

Now, the museum had more then just one airplane on hand. In fact, it wa rather impressive both for it's selection and the display of all the aircraft. Unfortunately we were running a bit off schedule so we basically raced through this museum as fast as we could.

The next part of the trip was to drive to Kedleston Hall just outside of Derby. Unfortunately they won't let you take photos inside. Yet the home is huge and on a huge piece of land that is home to quite a few sheep. The home was recently used for the filming of the The Duchess Keira Knightly. This is another property that is owned and maintained by the National Trust here in the UK. What is impressive is that they do an excellent job at preserving and maintaining the properties without making them very touristy. There goal is to preserve the properties for everyone to see and still make them functional. In the case of Kedleston the family who gave the home to the NT actually still lives on the property. It's a beautiful home with quite a few pieces of artwork on display.