Grand Tour - Wales - Day 747

We are doing it again. A visit to the castle is on the agenda. 

Penrhyn CastleA country castle (Wikipedia writes: a castle in the style of a Norman castle!) with immense dimensions impresses us as we drive through the beautiful castle gate.  

In a moment we'll be feeling quite dignified, Felix rolls through the gate with his head held high, then parks under venerable redwood trees - or are they just huge oaks? 

We walk unhurriedly past the ticket booth with smiles on our faces, once again happy to have bought the annual subscription from the National Trust to call our own. 

The garden alone is huge and also beautiful, the castle, we learn, is the second largest in the British Isles after Windsor Castle in terms of area.

The story goes something like this: Castle was built. The next owner had it completely rebuilt by his favourite architect. The next owner had it rebuilt again on the advice of his favourite architect. And so on, imagine building sites that last forever. 

It has probably been standing around here like this for centuries now. The owners changed, became rich, impoverished, married again one with a large dowry, became rich and so on. As it is with barons and so on. The fact that a lot of money was made from slavery and colonisation is hardly ever mentioned here in England (or in the UK), and if it is, it is with pride rather than guilt. This is something that always pisses us off bitterly. 

At The Daimler Company then moved in here during the Second World War., use the place as their company headquarters. Unfortunately, they weren't quite as careful with the silk wallpaper and wooden floors, but oh well.  

At some point, a baron moved in again, who then remained childless and bequeathed everything to a niece. My God, I really didn't want to know all that, but we couldn't get past it. 

The exciting thing was actually that someone would then could not pay his taxes and in exchange for the large sum Penrhyn Castle went to the state. And since the state couldn't do anything with it either, the National Trust has been taking care of it ever since. So the circle closes and we, as loyal National Trust members, can enjoy looking at everything here.

For hours we stroll through royal halls, princely kitchens, admire majestic banquet dining rooms and hear funny, sad, strange and historical stories. The only thing we can't get our heads around is the dates. 

As of now, we divide our history knowledge into three categories: In the past, very much in the past. Somewhere in there, all castles now have to fit in historically, which makes it much easier for us.

Conclusion: That was really by far the most beautiful castle we had visited. And quite honestly? After about 3.5 months in the British Isles, both of us had more than enough of castles, palaces and historical buildings. But one should never praise the day before the evening: This one was really something and surprised us in a positive way.

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Merci for "travelling with us

We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.

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