The Castles

A few years ago when we were visiting Florence we went to museums. Lots of museums. So many that while I was eagerly looking forward to a day at the Uffizi Gallery, Mark announced that he could not visit another museum. He was "museumed out".

And so the pressure to "see" and "do" everything was removed. And now I find that I also have limits. I have concluded that I am good for one historic house, one castle, and one cathedral per trip. Any more than that and they all start to look the same to me. (I'm a bit more flexible about museums.)

So having visited a cathedral already I was okay with a visit to Castle Howard. It's not really a castle and may be best known as the filming location for Brideshead Revisited ( which I have never seen, but will probably watch now, having been to the house.) The Howard family still owns the house and while they occupy the west wing, we were told that some of the rooms on display are frequently pressed into service if they're having guests. It does look ideal for entertaining.

We also visited Castle Rising, also owned by the Howard family, but not nearly as nice as Castle Howard. It's really castle ruins. With proper maintenance, castles can be quite nice - Windsor Castle is the best example. But Castle Rising is being preserved as a "ruin".