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A castle, a court and an orb
Sep. 2nd, 2014 04:13 pmWe had a very busy week-end of sightseeing.
Back in February we booked tickets to visit Highclere Castle - the main set of the "Downton Abbey" series - last Sunday.
Since it turned out it is much easier to get there by car, we hired one and used it for another day trip on Saturday.
Highclere Castle was interesting to visit, rather busy but well organised.
The castle was built in the mid-1800s by Charles Barry who also designed the Houses of Parliament, and you can indeed see some similarities.
In the basement (or was it the ground floor?) there's an exhibition dedicated to the 5th Earl of Carnarvon's hobbies, and especially to its great passion: Egyptology.
He financed and took part in the excavations that discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 and died a few months later.
Most of the exhibition is dedicated to the artifacts (copies of course) found in the tomb and there's even a 'reconstruction' of it.
The castle is in a splendid position, surrounded by a vast estate which also comprises gardens, a recently planted wild flower meadow (turning golden brown in the pictures below) and a number of "follies".
Of course you are not allowed to take pictures indoors, but then if you watch Downton I guess you don't need to! LOL
We visited the library, the hall and the staircase used in many scenes, and also peered at some of the bedrooms used by Lady Sybil, Lady Edith and 'that' Turkish diplomat from series 1.
It was rather crowded upstairs and the queue was slow. I couldn't wait to get out!
Next stop was a last-minute addition to the itinerary.
I found it on the Art Fund website (we are both members) and, as it is not far from Windsor, was ideal to break our journey back home.
Dorney Court is a Tudor house (built around 1510) and it's a delightful place, full of charm and history.
Ironically it's also been (and still is) the location for many films and TV series: the list is very long indeed.
It is open to the general public only in August (the owner still lives there the rest of the year) and we ended up on the last guided tour for 2014!
The tour was quite long (1 hr 20 min) and intimate (fewer than 10 people), and quite fascinating.
Sadly no pictures allowed which was a real shame in this case.
Of course we were treated to a ghost story, one of lady walled up alive in one of the bedrooms. According to the guide, the skeleton is still there and two exorcisms failed to get rid of the ghost.
When we got home and compared our photos, we noticed that in both sets a "mysterious" orb appeared in different places.
Can you spot it in the next 3 pictures?
A couple of details from the lovely church, just behind the house:
Back in February we booked tickets to visit Highclere Castle - the main set of the "Downton Abbey" series - last Sunday.
Since it turned out it is much easier to get there by car, we hired one and used it for another day trip on Saturday.
Highclere Castle was interesting to visit, rather busy but well organised.
The castle was built in the mid-1800s by Charles Barry who also designed the Houses of Parliament, and you can indeed see some similarities.
In the basement (or was it the ground floor?) there's an exhibition dedicated to the 5th Earl of Carnarvon's hobbies, and especially to its great passion: Egyptology.
He financed and took part in the excavations that discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 and died a few months later.
Most of the exhibition is dedicated to the artifacts (copies of course) found in the tomb and there's even a 'reconstruction' of it.
The castle is in a splendid position, surrounded by a vast estate which also comprises gardens, a recently planted wild flower meadow (turning golden brown in the pictures below) and a number of "follies".
Of course you are not allowed to take pictures indoors, but then if you watch Downton I guess you don't need to! LOL
We visited the library, the hall and the staircase used in many scenes, and also peered at some of the bedrooms used by Lady Sybil, Lady Edith and 'that' Turkish diplomat from series 1.
It was rather crowded upstairs and the queue was slow. I couldn't wait to get out!
Next stop was a last-minute addition to the itinerary.
I found it on the Art Fund website (we are both members) and, as it is not far from Windsor, was ideal to break our journey back home.
Dorney Court is a Tudor house (built around 1510) and it's a delightful place, full of charm and history.
Ironically it's also been (and still is) the location for many films and TV series: the list is very long indeed.
It is open to the general public only in August (the owner still lives there the rest of the year) and we ended up on the last guided tour for 2014!
The tour was quite long (1 hr 20 min) and intimate (fewer than 10 people), and quite fascinating.
Sadly no pictures allowed which was a real shame in this case.
Of course we were treated to a ghost story, one of lady walled up alive in one of the bedrooms. According to the guide, the skeleton is still there and two exorcisms failed to get rid of the ghost.
When we got home and compared our photos, we noticed that in both sets a "mysterious" orb appeared in different places.
Can you spot it in the next 3 pictures?
A couple of details from the lovely church, just behind the house:
