I freaked right out when visiting Warwick with my now repatriated friend who was living, at the time, in England. The bowels of that castle were full of horrors, plus, until we moved through history to more genteel times, it seemed like no way to live. I fell in to a giant weeping mess at Toul Sleng in Phnom Pehn and had to be removed to a quiet courtyard across the street where I recovered with a cup of tea. I was less traumatized by Schoenbrunn, Vienna's sprawling palace complex, though I am still mad at Queen Marie Therese for being anti-Semitic.

What I am saying is this: I am a sucker for a historical site, though somewhat too sensitive for those filled with tortured ghosts.

Medieval Castle Blog is running a timely series on haunted castles that's kind of fun to poke through. Broughton Castle -- built in 1306 -- has its own blog because really, what's a castle without a blog? When I worked for that tech start up, I used to waste far too much time poking around on Castles for Sale since the tech boom was going to make me wealthy enough not just to buy one, but also to maintain it, which those in the know tell me is the real problem with castle ownership.

This article on Suite 101 has suggests visisting the grand palaces of Seoul, South Korea (um, okay!). And here's a rather amusing round up about the palaces of Leningrad, I mean Saint Petersburg, I'm fairly agitated that I've not yet been to see the palaces of Rajasthan in India,

I'll let you find your own prison links if you're looking to visit those grim places. I'm pretty sure I could not visit the Tower of London with the same eyes after watching the Tudors, the lucious Showtime series -- though wait, here's the Tudor Tutor which gives us the Ghost du Jour series, just to help you get your history right should you end up there. As a visitor, i'm hoping, not as a victim of Henry's fickle whim. That seems better.

Again I'll say it: I'm a sucker for a good historical site, even if my skin is a little thin sometimes. My imagination runs kind of wild thinking, wow, people LIVED here, they LIVED THIS WAY, and then, I need to know more about it. Palaces and castles and prisons, they're great eyeopeners into history and that is as good a reason to visit them as any.

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View.