Singing in the Rain

We were faced with another rainy forecast for the weekend, but as always, we still managed a fun, if damp Northamptonshire weekend... We wanted to stay close to home because next weekend we are headed to Lake Windemere for a whole week! More on that in a couple of weeks!

So, we went to Rockingham Castle which is only about 20-30 minutes drive from our pad in Brixworth. It is an impressive castle which has a 900 year history - all the way back to William the Conqueror... Its really interesting to think about what the "castle" must have looked like 900 years ago - basically a wooden building with spikey wooden poles making a fence around - kind of like what you see in Braveheart, then a couple of hundred years later a big stone building with just one big room with a fire in the middle - no chimney or anything... Then abandoned until the Watson family bought it in the 1500s and turned it into a fashionable Tudor era home with amazing wooden beams and stone floors, chimneys, windows, all of the modern upgrades!

Unfortunately we couldn't take photos inside - I wish I could have, it was really nice - and the art collection was really impressive - portraits of Elizabeth I, Mary Bolyn (Lizzie's auntie...), also original seals of both Henry III and Elizabeth I - it was way cool!

Pat was thinking of bringing this one back to go with the KTM he will buy

within 5 minutes of hitting US Soil

Audrey at Rockingham Castle, Northamptonshire UK

Notice the booklet in Audrey's hand above - she's got an "I Spy" quiz provided by the castle shop - most of the sites we go to have little quizzes for the girls and they love them! Audrey used to be quite shy, but has become much more brazen after so many quizzes and now seeks out the stewards in the various castle rooms to get help with the questions in her quiz - we have all learned a lot more than we might have without Audrey's help!

A split second after I took this, Zoe nearly tipped over with the weight of this helmet!

Rockingham Castle

Rockingham Castle- still home to the Watson family who first bought the castle in the 17th century. This castle is mentioned in the Doomsday book - William the Conqueror ordered a castle to be built here after the Battle of Hastings in 1066

The "Wild Gardens" at Rockingham Castle

Rockingham Castle Gardens

The girls in the garden during a "sunny spell"

We've seen lots of castles and gardens - this is my favorite garden so far - Lovely!!

16th Century original cobbled road preserved inside the Rockingham Castle grounds - SOOOOOO COOOOOOOL! Kitchen, scullery and brewery to the right - thats what I'm talkin bout

Rockingham church down the hill from the castle

We also visited Stoke Brurne - a historic canal village with a museum chronicling the history of the British waterways. Before there were trains, there were canals and the "long boats" which were used to haul everything from coal to lumber. Apparently the advent of the canals was contraversial for its time (mid 1700s) and their construction was viewed as destroying the environment - like when a bypass is built today - interesting...

It was "chucking down" rain, and it was windy and cold to boot - I swear, summer just forgot to make a stop in England this year! The village was split down the middle by the canal, and it is as quaint as quaint can be! The canal boats that were moored along the "cut" were lovely - many people travel about in their long boats in the summer like Americans "RV" - it seems like a very relaxing and peaceful way to travel...

Blisworth Tunnel - nearly 2 miles long - an amazing

engineering feat for its time

Quite surprisingly, this chap mentioned the weather as he passed us by - the Brits are not the friendliest folks, but they are always up for a chat about the weather... notice the pint on the roof of the boat in front of the cap'n :)
We were lucky as we were strolling about - we got to see some one go through the locks. we hope during our time here to rent a long boat and take a short holiday on the waterways!

Wish us dry weather for our trip to the Lake District - aw screw it, if we wanted dry, we should have gone to Spain!