点评:We love castles and Royal Palaces and have recently been to Sandringham and had a tour of Buckingham Palace so timed our trip to Scotland to just catch Balmoral while it was still open. The grounds are beautiful even on a very overcast day. Parking was easy (we arrived early just as it opened) and despite being ‘older’ we found the longish straight walk from the car park pleasant and very manageable. We knew there was only one room open but even knowing this we were quite disappointed at how small this room was and how little in reality it contained. The parts of Buckingham Palace we saw on a guided tour were stunning, and Sandringham was so interesting, even seeing the room where the late Queen watched tv and gave her Christmas address. I have no idea why the experience at Balmoral differs so much and why they can’t share a little more of Balmoral with visitors?
To be honest the Queen seems like a forgotten memory at Balmoral. Much is made of ‘Charles’ vision for the future’, but surely people are visiting to explore the history too, and that includes the Queen. We felt like she had never existed!
The shop was intriguing, and worth looking round, but unbelievably expensive. I have never before come out of a gift shop empty handed, and my sister’s haul was just 4 pencils! A tartan throw/picnic rug was almost £700!
We enjoyed our trip, although a half day was ample, but at least that gave us time to explore Braemar and Ballater too. I’m glad we’ve seen it, but it in no way compares to the beautiful Glamis Castle which we visited 2 weeks later. Wonderful, interesting guided tour, happy helpful staff, the most amazing gift shop, and very poignant memories of the Queen and Queen Mother everywhere. If you can only do one definitely make it Glamis.
翻译:我们热爱城堡和皇家宫殿,最近去了桑德灵厄姆宫,还参观了白金汉宫,所以我们特意安排了苏格兰之旅,趁着巴尔莫勒尔宫还开放的时候去参观。即使是阴天,园内景色也美不胜收。停车很方便(我们到的时候正好是开放时间),尽管年纪大了,但从停车场步行一段稍长的直线路程还是很轻松。我们知道只有一个房间开放,但即使知道这一点,我们还是相当失望,因为这个房间太小,里面的东西也很少。我们在导游的带领下参观了白金汉宫的各个部分,非常令人惊叹,桑德灵厄姆宫也非常有趣,我们甚至看到了已故女王看电视和发表圣诞致辞的房间。我不明白为什么巴尔莫勒尔宫的体验会如此不同,为什么他们不能与游客分享更多巴尔莫勒尔宫的风采?
说实话,女王在巴尔莫勒尔宫似乎已经是一段被遗忘的记忆。这里充斥着“查尔斯对未来的愿景”,但肯定也有人来这里探索历史,女王本人也不例外。我们感觉她从未存在过!
这家商店很有趣,值得一逛,但价格贵得令人难以置信。我以前从未空手而归过礼品店,我姐姐只买了四支铅笔!一条格子呢野餐垫就要将近700英镑!
我们很享受这次旅行,虽然半天时间已经足够,但至少这给了我们时间去探索布雷马和巴拉特。我很高兴我们参观了那里,但它绝对比不上我们两周后参观的美丽的格拉姆斯城堡。精彩有趣的导览游,热情友好的工作人员,最棒的礼品店,以及女王和王太后在各个地方留下的深刻回忆。如果你只能去一次,一定要去格拉姆斯。