Castles, Cathedrals and Courts: A Look at History

Can you really say you were in the U.K. if you did not tour a castle…or four? If you want to explore the United Kingdom and learn about it, one of the easier ways to do that is touring a few of its castles. They are a huge part of the country’s tourism, and rightly so because they are beautiful. The grandeur of the rooms and the gardens is difficult to swallow. Especially when you consider that for some people in the country, those castles were home. Those people were surrounded by that level of grandeur and beauty everyday. The exciting part is the differences between the castles and the stories those differences paint. Each castle is opulent but also unique. The art within it, chosen by a different monarch. The style characteristic of a different time. Each room in each castle is a piece of a puzzle that when put together reveals the history of the United Kingdom. That is a heady idea. It is easy to see how people have become obsessed with people long dead that lived in these castles when you see these locations. I, for one, began to understand my own fascination with Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte when I found myself at Hampton Court where some of the scenes were filmed. I found myself imagining how amazing it would have been to see these scenes filmed with the rooms made to look functional and alive again. Now, that would be a heady feeling - walking through the rooms and seeing the architecture as if it were part of the present not history. This feeling only intensified when I saw Windsor Castle. As a fan of The Crown, walking the paths felt like travelling through time. These tours took learning about history to the next level.