Highclere

My number one goal for this trip, from the time we began planning, was to visit Highclere Castle, aka Downton Abbey.

You can imagine my disappointment when their website said Highclere would be open only 3 days during our trip,

and all entry tickets for those days were sold out.

So we made other plans.

Last night we bought train tickets to Bath, leaving at 9:30 this morning.

Then Terry's sister-in-law said she'd heard the estate sometimes held back tickets for walk-in visitors, and if we got there early enough we might be able to score some of those.

Back to the train station we went for a refund on our Bath tickets. SIL, who in 6 years of living in Newbury has never visited Highclere, drove us to the estate where, miracle of miracles, we got entry tickets!

Front doorway.

No photos were allowed of the interior (which is just as overwhelming and beautiful as you think it is), so we had to content ourselves with outdoor shots.

We walked through the grounds,

including the walled garden

with its shrub tunnel and multiple greenhouses.

One of my favorite things were the enormous trees around the house.

They were amazing.

Some have probably been here since the original house was founded in the 1600's.

Can you imagine how big this tree was before it came down?

The icing on the Highclere cake for the boys was the collection of vintage Morgan motor cars in the parking lot as we were leaving.

They looked so perfectly appropriate in that setting.

A few more pics . . .