A Day at Downton Abbey

We are big fans of the British drama - Downton Abbey.  Visiting the location where the show is filmed - Highclere Castle, was on our  'must do' list when relocating to the UK!  

The castle has somewhat limited opening times.  A few days in May, a few days in June, and then open July, August and part of September with special openings at chrismas and Easter.  In addition to the limited days, it also has limits on tickets offered per day, and is not open Friday's or Saturdays.  So with the Olympics on this summer and it being a very easy trip out from London, it became a challenge to pick a day that would work and that wasn't sold out.  A few weeks ago, we then realized that it would soon be closed again for the Winter with the last opening day being September 13.  Then checking online we found out that there were only two days remaining that had tickets available (Sept 11, and 12) so we picked the 11th and pre-booked our tickets hoping for good weather.  

Well this time, we lucked out on weather and had a beautiful fall day at Highclere castle.  We decided to not pull the boys out of school being that it was only their second week, so went with only Preston and Abbie.  It was a little over 2 hours from our house, mostly on motorways which made for good driving.  

It is a very impressive site to behold as you begin walking up to the structure and see all the open laws around.  

We decided to tour the inside of the castle first.  Unfortunately they do not allow photography of any kind inside the house but it was amazing to see the rooms that we are now so familiar with.  The house was packed, causing the tour to move very slow.  They should limit the number of people moving through more.  We figured about half the people visiting were there because of the TV show and the other half were just visiting it as a tourist destination, and didn't know anything about Downton Abbey, (and were probably trying to figure out who this 'Earl of Grantham' guy was.) 

After the tour Abbey and Preston were starving so we had lunch on the green, before walking around the grounds.    

Kelly and I realized that we were hungry now as well so stopped for lunch and tea at the tea room on the property.  How very English!  Overall, a great day, with perfect weather.  The Season premier is this Sunday (Sept 16) so we are now excited to watch with a new perspective.  

On the way home, I thought it might be fun to stop by Stonehenge since it is in the general vicinity.  

Yes, its one of those 'must sees' if in England, but what a complete tourist trap....and very underwhelming.  First off, they charge you a fee to walk on a cordoned off pathway that doesn't even let you anywhere near the stones.  I don't mind paying if it helps preserve the site, but we are talking about a set of rocks here....  Plus the crowds ... today you would have been standing admiring the site with about 500 others (remember this was only a Tuesday after school was back in session).  I satisfied my curiosity and took a few pictures from outside the fence for free like many others were doing.  (The crowds of people from the bus tours are just slightly to the right of my photo, standing behind the ropes of course:)

 

Summer Vacation to North Wales


(For some reason the video above doesn't seem to show up on Ipad's so if you cannot see it try this link)

We spent a week up in North Wales for summer vacation this year.  We rented a cottage on the Lleyn peninsula near the village of Cricceith (pronounced Crick-eth) in the Snowdonia Region that we used as our home base.  While the distance from our house to the vacation spot was only about 165 miles, it was about a 4.5 hour trip as there is no real direct high speed road to get to this area.

North Wales is a beautiful region of the UK.  It suprises us how few people from South Wales have ever been up there considering how close it is.  We had a great week visiting villages, beaches, mountains and castles.  Some highlights that you will see in the video.

  • We travelled 4 miles by steam engine on the only rack and pinion railway in Britian, to the top of the highest peak in Wales - Mt Snowdon at 1085M (3560ft).  The train must use rack and pinion due to the steepness of the tracks!  
  • We visted the village and castle of Beaumaris on the Island of Anglesey.  (We also got drenched here in a sudden downpour that caught us off guard:)
  • We visited the village and castle of Caernarfon.  One of Edward I mightiest castles.  This is also where the original 'Prince of Wales' was born hence the start of a standing tradition where the eldest son of the king/queen is given this title (currently held by Prince Charles).
  • We visited the north coast resort village of Llandudno with its victorian inspired downtown, spectacular waterfront, and the Great Orme Peninsula - a massive headland that overlooks the village and gives great views of the snowdonia mountains.  
  • We visited the walled village and castle of Conwy - another great castle built by Edward I to keep wales under control. 
  • While most days were not perfect beach weather we were able to spend some time at the beach in Llandudno as well as the beach below our cottage at Black Rock Sands, which is one of the few places that allow you to drive your car right onto the beach!

Pembrokshire: St David's and Caerfai Beach

The weather was looking good so we headed west to Pembrokshire in southwest wales.  Our target for today was St. David's Cathedral.  St. David was born in the year 500 and died in 589.  He is the patron saint of Wales and there has been a monstary/church of some sort at this site where the current cathedral sits since the 6th century.   It is also the largest cathedral in Wales.  The town around is a small and quaint tucked away on the western tip of wales. 

After exploring St David's village and cathedral, we headed to the beach.  The Pembrokshire coast in south-west wales was ranked the Number two coastline in the world by National Geographic, so it seemed that we could hardly go wrong.  I picked a small beach very close to St. David's called Caerfai and it turned out to be everything we had hoped for an afternoon of fun in the sun.  Kelly was kicking herself for not bringing shorts/swim suit on this trip but had fun testing out the new telephoto zoom lens on the camera.  (see some of the great shots below)

From Caerfai, we looped up around north Pembrokshire to take a different way home.  Not being sure I would be in that general vacinity again, I wanted to stop by an ancient megalithic monument called Pentre Ifan.  It is what remains of a burial chamber believed to have been contructed around 3500 BC.  Amazing rock formation with a 16 ton capstone balancing on 3 points under it.  A little off the beaten path to get there but it was worthwhile and a nice break to get out of the car and enjoy the late afternoon sun.

A long but enjoyable day of travelling.  Kids were great in the car.  Well stocked snacks and a recent purchase of a portable DVD player helped as well!

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The Brecon Beacon Region of South Wales

With White puffy clouds floating around south wales Sunday, we decided to take the afternoon and drive up to the Brecon Beacon.  This is a mountain region in south Wales that is also 1 of 3 national parks in Wales.  Here are some shots as we drove through the the region to and from the village of Brecon.  A couple of the pictures feature the mountain Pen y Fan - the highest point in south wales, and southern Britain.

Or main goal for the afternoon was a visit to the market village of Brecon at the northern edge of the park.  A great village to explore.  We wandered some of the streets and visited St. Johns Cathedral, where we also had a late lunch on the greens.  The river that you see in the pictures is the river Usk.

A wonderful afternoon excursion, with great weather - one of those days that makes you glad to be alive! 

We decided to take a different way home and on the way I stopped to find and take a photo of Tretower castle.  Kids were tired so we didn't stay, but there is an apple festival here in mid September that we want to go to. Now know how to get there!