Leeds Castle - Kent England

Well Day what ever we're up too on our holiday started out with an early rise (7.45am ha) to ensure we got on the road at a decent time (just after the main rush hour about 9.30ish). Row and I rang Ian & June and Barb and got answer phones on both accounts it was quite funny.

What was funnier sort of, was we were literally just walking out the door when the phone rang and it was Ian and June. So Row got to speak to his parents for a while... But get this, Ian put the phone to Orion's (the dog) ear and Orion hung up on him, it was so funny. Probably not for Rowan as now I keep telling him that the dog has disowned him. Hopefully that isn't the case when we get home :)

Madeleine and Michael joined us today and we drove out to Leeds Castle in Kent. It actually took longer to drive to Stonehenge which is closer in distance. So we had a coffee before walking around the Castle grounds. They were so lovely. I want a garden that big, I know I said that in my last blog, but now I want a garden like Leeds Castle, with rivers and moats they are so cool.

The walk around the garden and through the duckery (Rowan was chomping at the bit to get his hands on a shotgun, but alas there were none in sight) and then around the waterways. It was very pleasant and relaxing. We got some awesome photos of the Castle from a distance. (have a look at http://picasaweb.google.com/JamoAndMegs ) We then wondered through an old Mill, which was very run down, in fact it had no roof, and no waterwheel, but again nice views out over the moat to the lawn gardens below.

Over the bridge across the moat, which I think I heard someone say that it use to be a draw bridge which would make sense, and into the Castle. This was anther splendid example of a Castle that truely looks like a Castle, and this one even had a moat. We wondered through the rooms of the Castle and were allowed to take pictures, I took some, but I'm getting use to not being allowed too. We brought the Guide book so I knew I had all the major art works etc explained. One spiral staircase was made from a single tree trunk, it must have been a huge tree.

Throughout the walk through the Castle there were many spectacular views out the windows over the moat and to the gardens below. Also the Castle, which had for several hundred years been owned by private families and not Royality, had been rennovated several times. One of the most recent was between 1920 and 1936. Included in this rennovation was central heating, which has been very cleverly hidden by iron grates in the floor, you wouldn't know it wasn't suppose to be there.

The last owner Lady Olive Baillie gifted the Castle into the Leeds Castle Foundation and it has since been restored to some of its former glory and opened to the public. By restored to former glory, I mean the foundation returned some of the rooms to what they might have been like in the 17th Century, which gives the Castle a more authenic air.

The grounds also have a maze, a falconry, Aviary, Vineyard (which is located on the site it was said to have been at in 1066) which produces wine for the cafe and to sell, and extensive gardens. Not to mention the cafes and Leeds Castle shops for nic nacs.

One Museum, a dog collar museum wasn't at all what I thought. There were a few old collars, some I would never ever have put on Orion, but then they say they were like that to save the dog from the pigs. Even so I still wouldn't have put it on him. Some of them must have been extremely heavy.

The only disappointing part of the day, was that the shop didn't have a shot or spirit glass for us to buy. Now our collection is missing one, but oh well, you get that.

We drove back, hopeing to avoid rush hour traffic, which we only caught the first part of and had fish and chips for dinner. Tonight will likely be an early night. Quite tired after all this sightseeing.

R&M