My First Visit to an English Castle

On Friday Jason took me up north about an hour to Alnwick Castle, the home of the Duke of Northumberland. It was my first visit to an English Castle and upon entering the first giant stone archway there was a large sign that read "Welcome to our family home" and there was a message from the Duke of Northumberland about the history of the castle and what it means to his family. I couldn't believe as I stood there in this massive stone structure that this actually belongs to someone. Most parts of it have been turned into a museum but this is still a "family home" as has been for about 700 years. I can't imagine living in such an amazing place and that the numerous antiquities actually belong to a family. As amazing as it would be to live in this place, I also couldn't imagine my home being open to the public with velvet ropes and placards everywhere and security cameras and docents. To just have strangers roaming through the house and grounds would be a strange way to live, but then again only a small bit of the interior of the castle was open to the public and the rest I am sure is kept quite private.

We weren't able to take photographs of the inside of the castle, but it was really one of the most magnificent things I have ever seen. I have seen museums and things with these types of interiors but as I mentioned before I was so struck by the reality that everything in this home belonged to one family and this family lives among their own history. Every inch of wall, ceiling and floor was ornately decorated with the most expensive materials you could imagine. Every wall was crammed with paintings of family members ranging through all generations. I don't have enough time here to describe all of the amazing things I laid my eyes on as we walked through the state rooms.

After we walked through the state rooms and tried to absorb everything we could, although honestly I think I could walk through that place every day for the rest of my life and probably find some new little thing I had never noticed before, but aaaaaanyway- we walked outside and explored the grounds which was kind of the main attraction for me because that is where the Harry Potter scenes were filmed.

Here is the green outside the castle where Harry Potter's first flying lesson was filmed:

Here are some more photos from different parts of the castle: