Day 121. Highclere Castle.

I was so excited to visit Highclere Castle today. Downton Abbey is one of my favorite TV series, so it was so cool to see the rooms where filming took place. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to photograph anything inside the castle.... We saw some of the 250 rooms, including Lady Grantham's bedroom, Mary's bedroom where the Turkish guy died in her bed, Sybil's bedroom, the family room, and dining room with the table that has 14 leafs that can be added. Each bedroom also had a dressing room where their maids could help them dress. Sybil's bedroom had a beautiful rocking horse in it. The kitchen and servants' dining room were filmed on a set, so we didn't see those areas. Unrelated to the show, the current residents are the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon. The Countess met us when we arrived and took a group picture with us in front of the castle. This Earl's grandfather's real claim to fame was that he found the tomb of an ancient Egyptian Pharoah that had a lot of gold and valuable artifacts. So the servants' quarters and kitchen were converted into display rooms of the artifacts and gold that he found. Most were replicas because the originals were sold to museums to pay the taxes that the Earl owed after his death.Read more