Sunday, August 9, 2009

Berkeley Castle

Today we visited Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. It is amazing - over 850 years old and still owned and lived in by the same family - the Berkeley family. It is a little weird that they live in a castle but I'm sure the private areas aren't quite as medieval as the public areas! There were paintings of all of the ancestors covering almost every inch of wall space - also a little weird but truly amazing that it has all survived since the 13th century. The kids thought it was cool - Emmy kept saying "castle - this is a castle!" She was amazed that these things existed outside of Disney movies. I think Aidan was a little impressed too - seeing where knights may have lived seemed to be cool enough for him! They also have a butterfly garden outside the walls of the castle. It was amazing - flowers everywhere and tons and tons of butterflies flying around. It was hard to take a picture since very few of them sat still for very long!

The outside of the castle:
In the courtyard:
Another angle of the courtyard:
the Drawing Room - those are tapestries on the wall - they date back 500 years!
the dining room:
Emmy headed down to the wine cellar:
The butterfly house:

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Thats so awesome! That is history for you!

Rains Family said...

WOW, gorgeous castle!! Great pictures! I'm so glad you're up and running on the internet again.

Kelly said...

What an incredible adventure you're beginning there!!! That's amazing and gorgeous!! Keep traveling and taking pictures... You'll have such wonderful stories that go with those pictures to tell each of the kids someday!!! WOW!!

Matthew, Eve, Noah, Noelle, and Brooke said...

how beautiful! The fourth picture looks like a city street it's so big! Love the butterfly pics too - that must have been so much fun!

Anonymous said...

What great memories you are all going to have. I am Jealous!!