Highclere Castle- a.k.a Downton Abbey

 For any of you that get a chance to watch Downton Abbey, DO IT!  For those of you who already have, you know why it was so fun to go to this castle.  This is where the show is filmed.  It was so fun to see.  I could almost hear the music as we were walking up to it.  Now I love watching it on TV and saying... "I walked down that staircase!"  Also interesting is that there is still an Earl and Lady Earl (can't remember what she's called) that still live there.  They spend most of their time in a home on the grounds, but still entertain there and they were doing construction on their home so they were actually staying in the home while we were there.  It was cool because they have pictures all around of the current family that lives there as well as the actors that live there.  Anyway, super fun to see.

 The grounds were also beautiful and fun for the kids to run around and see.

 Bill and Kayleen waiting for the Butler to answer the door and let them in. 

 I wasn't as patient, I was just going to let myself in.

 We were lucky to go when we did.  I had planned to go the following week but the castle is about 2 hours from our house and it was only about 30 minutes out of the way of where we were.  I checked online to see if we could get tickets and they were sold out, but I called and they said that although they don't advertise it, if we arrived after 2:30 most of the tour buses will have left by then and they usually have tickets available.  So we made an extra stop in our itinerary, we were the last ones there and closed the place down!!

 I was trying not to overplan for my in-laws, but as long as we kept the Pepsi going for Bill and Kayleen was able to take little cat naps in the car they were good to go!!

 Ellika took pictures in the back seat.  This was her view as we drove up to Stratford-Upon-Avon.

 We were happy to make it to our Bed & Breakfast that night!!

Another successful day of site seeing!!! 

Salisbury Cathedral

 We drove a little south to Salisbury Cathedral.  It was well worth it. The town was cute and these gates were cool. 

 Of course, it was still raining!

 Playing in the rain.

 The inside was beautiful.  This was the baptismal font which reflects the glass at the end of the wall and the ornate ceilings.

 "The Bumping Stone"  There is a stone that boys bump their heads one when they progress in the church.  It has an indent from all of the years of use. 

 I thought the blue stained glass was very pretty.

Happy kids.

Stonehenge

 Day 2 was the rainiest day of their visit.  Which was too bad since we wanted to see things that were outside, like Stonehenge!

 It was still pretty neat to see it.  There were also headsets to listen to while we walked around it.  I wish I could tell you why it was built... but that's still to be determined :)

 There was a movie being filmed while we were there.  I'm sure there was someone famous I just couldn't tell who they were because of the rain gear!

 This is not a good family picture of us... Owen refused to look and Ellika had just fallen down, but you see we were ALL there!

 The nice part about seeing it in the rain was that we were almost the only ones there!! 

 They can probably tell you all about it now.

Wet, but still cool to see!!

First Visitors- Windsor Castle

 We had our first (of many I hope) visitors since moving here come.  We were so excited to have Grandma and Grandpa Merx come.  They were able to come for 2 1/2 weeks and we loved every minute of it.  I warned them though that the first week was going to be pretty busy, and they handled it like pro's!  We eagerly awaited their arrival at Heathrow Airport and as soon as they got in we went directly to see Windsor Castle (about 20 minutes from the airport).

 Driving around the city was really neat.  The castle is right in the middle and up on a hill.  We parked a bit away from it and had the chance to view it from a distance as we walked to it. 

 My kids love running through a maze.  This one was fun on our walk to the castle.

 And then we were there.

 I hadn't really done any research on the castle, but apparently it's the most popular tourist spot in England.  Which means there was a bit of a line to get in.  But not too bad.  That just had never happened to us when visiting anywhere before. 

 

I loved that they have headsets to listen to that tells you interesting things about the castle.  Prince William even started it off.  They had kid ones too, which Owen really liked listening to.

 It was seriously HUGE!!

 Hehehehe.

 "Make way for the Queen's Gaurds!"   Complete with the original bear skin hats.

 

G & G did so well even after they had flown for 14 hours and had very little sleep!  We did get to our Bed & Breakfast around 6:00.  It was a charming little place in the middle of nowhere.  Actually about 10 minutes from Stonehenge, which is in the middle of nowhere.

 Everyone was still all smiles!!

We had a yummy dinner at this pub and called it an early night.  We had lots more to see the next day!!