After a harrowing drive, we arrived in the town of Arundel which was much quainter and pretty than Southampton where I work 45 minutes away. The castle is very well preserved and still inhabited by its family. Here’s a photo I took on the walk up to the castle.
We must have still looked harried from the drive. As we walked into the grounds, an older gentleman on a golf cart offered to take us up to the castle. We were whisked around the bend and past the gardens and up the steep hill. We blew past families with strollers, and white-haired people; feeling like VIP’s.
We only had an hour and a half before closing time so we raced through the interior first. They didn’t allow photos inside so I’d completely forgotten what it looked like until I looked it up online just now. I had forgotten about the beautiful library! My memory is terrible about that. Without photos, everything just blurs into a general impression colored by my last feelings as I depart. Here’s a photo of the library I found online but it doesn’t really do justice to how huge this long hall is. It was full of nooks and crannies and chairs of varying levels of comfort and style for readers. Obviously this family valued reading!
After rushing through the castle interior, we stopped in the courtyard where the Smugglers and Pirates festival was apparently going on… Maybe we missed it. When we got there, it was pretty much a handful of people dressed in SCA type garb standing around looking bored. Oh well, I’d gotten my dose of pirates at the Musical Blades show the night before at home.
Besides, who needs pirates when you have amazing gardens!?
As we exited the castle interior, the same pleasant gentleman with the golf cart happened to be at the exit looking at us expectantly. Did we really look that worn out?? Regardless, we happily accepted his offer to take us to the gardens.
The gardens were incredibly lush this late in the year. The weather was beautiful; making me realize that I’d misjudged what clothing to pack. (All those sweaters would come in handy in Ireland at least.) The fountains, sculptures, and structural elements were perfect to set off what plants remained. It still seems strange and out of place to see palm type trees in England. You wouldn’t think they’d survive.
We managed to see everything we wanted of the castle (thank you Mister Golfcart!!). We set the Garmin for Southampton, dropped the car off, found a bite to eat and were all set to start a week of work.
