Lady Dora does Downton

Expecting the hottest day ever in England today
and we are meant to not travel,
but you cant keep tourists at home 

We made it!

Its hot, not sure if I can get out
of this chair

Entering Highclere, no photos inside :(

Sundial to fuel my
new obsession

Looking pretty as a picture

Smelling the wonderful scents
in the secret garden

Posing again, in the Monks Garden

Monks Garden

Our ride home? 

Warning, warning, severe weather alert, expected high temperatures. Everyone is being asked to stay at home. BUT we have tickets booked for Highclere Castle. What do we do? Jane thinks it will be fantastic, the trains will be empty. A plan is hatched to get to Paddington station and then see what happens.

Its 6:33am and a bleary-eyed we board our first train to Charing Cross. Everything looks ok, change to the tube, now at Paddington on time for the express to Newbury. Well, that was dandy, we are in the gates to Highclere Castle as they open and ready to get into a photo frenzy. Highclere Castle has been here since the 17th century and owned by the Earl of Carnavon, currently, the 8th earl is in charge. However, it has been made famous by the TV show, Downton Abbey. 

It's baking hot, but nothing gets in the way of our sightseeing, we are snapping the castle from every angle and running between the shade of the trees.

 Jane says its 'hotter than Uluru here'.

Let's get those young girls to do our we have been here shots, they look like they know what they are doing. Now time to return the favour. Love friendly tourists. On we go there is the cafe, phew time for a sit-down. 

Now its time to enter the house, yippee, excitement mounts. A vaulted ceiling entrance, the library, the sitting room, on and on it goes. Am itching to take a photo, but they are not allowed. Now we start to talk to the room guides and I settle down into the flow. Molly, a guide in the sitting room lives in the nearby village and is telling us great stories including:

• how the Queen arrived in a helicopter for Lady Caravon's funeral
• the 7th earl's love of horse racing 
• how Lady Almina set up a hospital in WW1 

Molly talks about the house, children and grandchildren with love and devotion, she has been involved with the family for a long time and lives in the nearby village. The rooms are dotted with family photos and they also have big photos to show scenes from the show and we can stand right where Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith) stands near the fireplace. 

Up into the second floor, we go, see all the bedrooms with magnificent views of the grounds but the bit I like best is looking down into the saloon, called the heart of Highclere. It is all big chairs and fireplaces, surrounded by the most ornate stonework and tapestries and filled with light from the glass-covered roof three stories above. 

Eventually, its time to stop pretending we are Lady Jane and Lady Catherine and live here and move onto another important section, the Egyptian Collection. The 5th Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter after many years of archaeological digs discovered, Tutankhamun. A famous meeting took place in Highclere where Howard Carter asked for just one more year of funding and this was the year Tutankhamun was found, the rest is history. 

That was amazing, time for some lunch, now onto the gardens, all spectacular with lots of rests in the shade, it says its 36 degrees now but a tourist must go on. Jane runs from the shade of one tree to the next, she can be fast when she wants to. Time for an ice-cream, strawberry and cream, please. What a day.

The final tally on the weather, we were 0.4 degrees below the hottest day on record. Ever. 

Did make the record for the hottest day ever in July at 38.1C (100.6F) in Cambridge. Paris and Amsterdam recorded their hottest days ever.