Old Wardour Castle

After we visited Stonehenge we still had quite a bit of time and decided to look through our new English Heritage book for an idea of something close by that we could go and see.  We ended up at Old Wardour castle.  The castle is beautiful, romantic, and absolutely fascinating.  The castle was built in the late 1300's and then destroyed in the English civil war in 1644.  A new castle was built on the property leaving this one as Old Wardour castle.

To get to the castle we followed our sat nav down many one lane roads, that were lined by a beautiful wood shedding it's leaves into the autumn air.  One of the most gorgeous drives I've ever been on.  At the end of this winding road was one of the most serene estates with a reflective lake and rolling hills all around, and...quiet.  It was so quiet there.  We even saw two deer meandering through a meadow close by.

The most amazing part of the castle is that you are actually allowed access to walk completely through it, ancient ruins and all.  You got to see all the nooks and crannies and imagine how people lived then in their small rooms and many fireplaces.  It would be the most amazing place to be able to camp out overnight in.

For more information on Old Wardour castle go here.

 The view of the lake from Old Wardour castle.  I could easily get used to that view.

 The front entrance of the castle.

Stonehenge

Originally we were supposed to go big on this last weekend.  We were going to leave Friday night when Jon got home, drive south, and stay at a hotel.  Then we would go see Stonehenge and a few other sites around that area.  But, things happened and we ended up deciding not to do anything this weekend and make our plans for the next weekend. 

Well, Saturday morning came, and with it our normal routine.  Which is a trip to the market for our fruit and veg and other essentials.  Then we decided to head out to the American food store which we had just heard about.  Little did we know that it would take us within an hours drive of Stonehenge.

We went a bit crazy in the store.  We bought Stove top stuffing, tinned pumpkin, tinned sweet potatoes, Nutter Butters, Lifesavers, Frank's Redhot sauce (gallon size), Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, Jif peanut butter, graham crackers, green hotdog relish, Kraft mac and cheese, Goldfish crackers, A&W rootbeer, Combos, Bisquick, Gatorade, Chocolate chips, Butterscotch chips, White chocolate chips, and Swedish fish.  To say that we went stupid as soon as we walked into the store would be a vast understatement.  We left there with a big smile on our face and a giant hole in our bank account!

After that Jon and I decided to surprise the kids and drive down to Stonehenge.  We got there at 3:30 and they closed at 4, so we boogied and took some amazing pictures at sunset of Stonehenge.  We did end up buying the English Heritage membership so that we could visit for free there, but also lots of other sites as well. 

We decided to stay nearby and then go back first thing in the morning.  I'm so glad that we did.  We stayed in a great little quaint inn that has been around since the 1500s and ate in their tavern.  The next morning we were some of the first people at Stonehenge.  Joe did a lot of sketches, which was so cute as he was so excited about it all.  Joci listened and listened and listened to the radio tour provided, and then after we said goodbye to Stonehenge, we spent another huge amount of money in their gift shop.

Stonehenge is one of those places that you feel in awe of being close to it.  It doesn't really seem like much, just a bunch of big stones stacked up in a circle, but truly there is something about being there that is truly inspiring.  Who knows, maybe it really does put off some kind of psychic energy or something, but I think it has to do with human ingenuity. 

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

 We were surprised to see Stonehenge as we came over the hill driving there.

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween ended up being a lot more fun than I had feared it would be.  The week before Halloween was a midterm break, so we did lots of fun activities including a trip to Gullivers, which is like a really great Carnival or a really small Disney...take your pick.   The kids opted to wear their costumes to Gullivers so I got lots of great pictures of them in them, better than Halloween night.  We rode a rollercoaster, the kids' first, and went on the spinning barrels, where I narrowly missed losing my lunch.  We then did the log flume which was, by far, the favorite ride of the day.

On Halloween night we went Trick or Treating as usual.  There are definitely differences between the States and the UK.  Not bad, just different.  Here they are very much more into the scary or gory part of Halloween, where as in the States we just dress up, it doesn't have to have a scary theme.  Most of the costumes that we saw on kids were zombies, witches, and vampires.  Yup, that's it.  Part of the fun for me in the States is guessing what everyone is when you see them.  Joci and Joe were told many times that they looked very smart.  There weren't nearly the numbers that you see in the States, either, but there were more than I thought there might be.  We were often recognized as the American family as we went through the night, or asking where we were from.  There was only one house that was decorated on the outside of the house and they were having a party.

Something we noticed was the difference in candy, especially for those that are 'American'.  For instance, here a Milky Way is like the American 3 Musketeers, and the Mars bar is like an American Milky Way.  Cadbury chocolate is probably my favorite here, although, to me, it pales in comparison to true Belgium chocolate.

So we ended up having a great Halloween and we hope you did, too! 

Joci and Joe's first rollercoaster ride.  They loved it!

 The Trick-or-treating bags I made for the kids.

 My beautiful Belle and Dr. Who.

 I think this picture shows just how annoyed we were with Joe's screwdriver and the noises it made all day.

 I worked really hard on Joci's Belle hair.

 The ride that Joci freaked out on.  She did not like the heights and cried the entire time.

 Completely got talked into riding the spinning crazy barrels with the kids as Joci really wanted to ride it and was just barely too little to do so by herself.  Completely regret doing it.  I had to shut my eyes most of the time and had to sit down afterward trying not to get sick.  But, she loved it.