点评:Speke Hall is an amazing building, with a fascinating story to tell and fabulous wood panelling and 2 amazing trees in the courtyard.
For this reason, we decided it would be lovely, decoarted for Christmas.
However, we were really disappointed. We appreciated it was meant to be lit only by candlelight, in keeping with how it would have been when it was built but this was taken too far. It was too dimly lit to feel safe and it was almost like feeling your way around the building. Some of the decorations were really innovative and interesting but it was just too dimly lit for comfort.
It was also far too crowded - we went on a Friday and felt it too busy (gaining access to some rooms was virtually impossible), so at the weekend, I imagine it would have been worse.
It took me a while to actually pinpoint why it wasn't feeling festive but I realised there was just no atmosphere throughout the building.
The trees on the walk to the house were decorated for Christmas, which was good and there was plenty of guides throughout the house.
The guides were really friendly and very knowledgeable and helpful but it just didn't feel festive and very much in contrast to other NT properties we had visited for Christmas.
The staff at reception were lovely too and the second hand bookshop - Speke's Volumes - was well worth a visit. It is a shame there is no NT shop at this location.
Personally, I feel a visit at a different time of year would be much more enjoyable; Christmas here just didn't work for us.
翻译:斯皮克庄园是一座令人惊叹的建筑,它有着引人入胜的历史,精美的木镶板和庭院里两棵美丽的圣诞树都令人印象深刻。
因此,我们决定把它装点一新,迎接圣诞节的到来。
然而,我们却非常失望。我们理解庄园原本应该只用蜡烛照明,以保持其建造之初的风格,但这未免有些过头了。灯光昏暗得让人感觉不安全,几乎就像在摸索着前进。有些装饰确实很有创意,也很有趣,但整体光线太暗,让人难以忍受。
而且人也太多了——我们周五去的,就已经感觉非常拥挤(有些房间几乎进不去),所以我想周末的情况会更糟。
我琢磨了好一会儿才明白为什么这里没有节日气氛,后来才意识到整座建筑都缺乏节日氛围。
通往庄园的小路上的树木都装饰了圣诞彩灯,这很不错,而且庄园里也有很多导览人员。
导游们非常友好、博学且乐于助人,但这里却丝毫没有节日气氛,与我们之前参观过的其他国家名胜古迹截然不同。
前台工作人员也很热情,二手书店——斯皮克书店(Speke's Volumes)——非常值得一逛。可惜的是,这里没有国家名胜古迹的官方商店。
就我个人而言,我觉得在其他时间来这里会更愉快;这里的圣诞节氛围并不适合我们。