Page 17 - FlipBook

Osaka Castle
Japan
Osaka Castle has gone through several iterations over the centuries, as fire or war damaged previous versions. Currently, the gorgeous main building, a stack of pagoda style peaked and tiled roofs, dates to 1931, while the enormous moats and hefty stone walls, along with gates and turrets, remain from the Edo period. Six hundred cherry trees fill the Nishinomaru Garden and draw crowds each spring.
Osaka; osakacastle.net
Hearst Castle
USA
The pet project of media magnate William Randolph Hearst sits halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Designed in the Mediterranean-revival style by Julia Morgan, its 165 rooms were built both to showcase Hearst’s museum-quality art collection and to house celebrity guests such as the Marx Brothers and Greta Garbo. With views of the Pacific Ocean, indoor and outdoor pools, and luxurious living spaces, the castle is a tribute to midcentury high society.
San Simeon; hearstcastle.org
Château de Chambord
France
Europe’s largest enclosed forest park surrounds this magnificent 440-room French Renaissance château in the Loire Valley. Tour the ballrooms, check out the hunting museum, or climb the stairs up to the roof, where guests once watched the hunt below.
Chambord, Loir-et-Cher; chambord.org
Edinburgh Castle
Scotland
Dominating the city skyline, Edinburgh Castle rests atop an extinct volcanic crag. Some sections of the castle are almost
a millennium old, and it changed hands many times as the English and Scots fought over the territory. Among it’s treasures? The crown jewels of Scotland.
Castlehill, Edinburgh; edinburghcastle.gov.uk
Blarney Castle
Ireland
Legend has it that kissing the Blarney Stone, which can be reached by leaning backward over a parapet, will grant
you the gift of gab. The stone is housed within the medieval fortifications of Blarney Castle, built almost 600 years ago by chieftain Cormac MacCarthy and rife with superstitions.
Blarney, Cork; blarneycastle.ie
Alnwick Castle
England
The popularity of the 1,000-year-old castle has soared in recent years, as fans of the Harry Potter movies flock to where Hogwarts was shot for the first two
films. Parts of the Norman castle are still occupied by the Duke of Northumberland, but much of it is open to the public, including an art collection with pieces
by Titian and Van Dyck, and sumptuous staterooms filled with antiques amassed over hundreds of years.
Alnwick, Northumberland; alnwickcastle.com
ENDLESS VACATION 17