UK: Highclere and Stonehenge

We started our journey to the UK on a bus at 3:45 a.m. Blerg. We spent half the previous day figuring out which buses and trains would operate in the middle of the night on a weekday when the transit system is under construction in a country that shuts down for the month of July. But we made it to the airport, then to England, with no problems!

In England, we rented a car and headed straight for the country to see Highclere Castle, where the TV show "Downton Abbey" is set. Advance tickets sold out months before we even knew we'd be in England, but there was no way I was going to miss this. I was ready to jump the fence. But I read every post and comment on the castle's Facebook page digging for tips, one of which said walk-up tickets were plentiful. And they were. SCORE.



We drove up the driveway to Highclere listening to the Downton Abbey theme music. It was just like the opening credits. I was giddy. It was like entering my dreams.

The entrance hall, library, dining room, gallery, and staircase are all precisely as they appear in the show and we were there. I tried to take covert pictures, but none turned out. You've seen the show: just imagine me there, thrilled out of my mind.

The outside was surprisingly more interesting than the inside. The castle is far more beautiful (also smaller) than it appears on TV, and the grounds are lovely. Highclere was the highlight of my trip, for sure!

Stonehenge is supposedly just an hour from Highclere. It took us two, due to a bottleneck on the small highway right in front of the monument, which I think was entirely caused by people staring. It was much smaller than I expected. Not much to say about it... old rocks, inexplicably stacked. It's famous.

Something I didn't expect to see so many of at Stonehenge: sheep. Todd really wanted to pick one up, so we walked through a field of their poo to get a little closer. But these (and all subsequent English sheep) weren't having it.