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:)
