Today we woke up early and rented a car. We drove out of the city and into the English countryside that I LOVE! Our destinations....Leeds Castle and the White Cliffs of Dover.
We arrived at the Castle of Leeds early enough that the day was still cool. We walked up the beautifully manicured paths to the castle grounds and had a lovely time feeding the ducks, admiring the spring flowers and watching the peacocks. It was so green, everywhere! I don't know how many different types of ducks, swans and fowl make Leeds their home, but we saw many different kinds. The kids really enjoyed themselves.
It's still spring, so we saw lots and lots of babies! They totally had our number too. They saw the kids with their cups of food and came running!! Carley had hers empty in 5 minutes. What she didn't feed to the ducks, ended up dumped in the pond. Luckily, Luke and Emry were feeling generous and shared with her.
Leeds Castle is supposed to be the most picturesque castle in England, and I can see why it's promoted that way. It's the whole package! Extensive grounds, beautifully preserved castle, tourets, bridges, gardens galore, a maze and most importantly, a moat!
I have to write this next part, because it's just one of those things that happen when you're traveling. It's really crummy at the time, but nothing can be done about it...nothing. What you can't see in these beautiful photos is all the goose poo in the grass. We had to really keep an eye out or we'd have stepped in it. Well, Trent decided it was a fun idea to have the kids roll down the hill.....picture me shaking my head, horrified. He of course made fun of me telling me I was over reacting. Anyway, Luke ended up fine. Emry ended up fine. Carley ended up with goose poo all over herself. It was terrible, but we had little option but to do our best at cleaning up and pressing on. Memories!
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| this is the gardeners house...ummm, sign me up! |
After we toured the castle, we went back into the gardens for more exploring. We made our way to the maze and let the kids loose. Luke & Emry took off right away and Carley stayed with us. We were surprised when we found the middle that Luke & Emry were still lost in the maze because we hadn't come across them! They eventually found their way, with a bit of help from us, it was a lot of fun.
The coolest part of the maze was the grotto at the exit. You have to go down underground into a cave of sorts and inside it's completely decorated with shells. Statues in alcoves and a gorgeous ceiling, the artwork was amazing. I can't imagine how long it took to complete.
The English garden, because no English castle is complete without one!
The field "lice" you have to look closely, but they're there.
We piled back into the car in search of lunch & the white cliff's of Dover!
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| view of the fortress from town |
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| view of the city from the fortress |
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| This is how steep the hills are around the fortress. They didn't make it any further. I have no doubt that this was a major factor in times of defense! |
I copied this verbatim from the English Heritage website...
Commanding the shortest sea crossing between England and the continent,
Dover Castle has a long and immensely eventful history. Many centuries
before King Henry II began the great stone castle here in the 1160s, its
spectacular site atop the famous ‘White Cliffs’ was an Iron Age hill
fort, and it still houses a Roman lighthouse, one of the best-preserved
in Europe. The Anglo-Saxon church beside it was once probably part of a
Saxon fortified settlement: very soon after his victory at Hastings in
1066, this was converted by William the Conqueror into a Norman
earthwork and timber-stockaded castle.
From then on Dover Castle was garrisoned uninterruptedly until 1958, a
continuous nine-century span equaled only by the Tower of London and
Windsor Castle. The stronghold hosted royal visits by Henry VIII,
Elizabeth I and Charles I’s Queen Henrietta Maria: and from 1740 until
1945, its defenses were successively updated in response to every
European war involving Britain.
Dover Castle is above all a great medieval fortress, created by King
Henry II and his Plantagenet successors. At its heart stands the mighty
keep or Great Tower, 83 feet (25.3m) high and just under 100 feet (30m)
square, with walls up to 21 feet (6.5m) thick. The grandest and among
the last of the keeps raised by the kings of England during the 11th and
12th centuries, it was designed by Henry II’s architect ‘Maurice the
Engineer’ and built between 1180 and 1185. A symbol of kingly power and
authority guarding the gateway to the realm, it was also a palace
designed for royal ceremony, and to house Henry’s traveling court.
Within this magnificent showpiece, Henry could welcome and impress
distinguished visitors to England– particularly noble pilgrims traveling to the new shrine in Canterbury Cathedral of St.Thomas Becket.
It was a very hands on tour. The kids were able to be interactive with the set scenes and that was excellent! Here they're hanging out in the guard room, just grabbing a quick snack...then it's back to work!
I loved all the medieval touches, so much fun to see!
In the King's hall we ran into the King Henry II & his wife, Queen Elanor of Aquitaine. The kids got a kick out of the interaction. They even bowed & curtsied!
Here, King Henry II is explaining this detailed map of the Norman Conquests.
Prepared for a royal feast, the guest hall was decorated with wall hangings that showed the power and expanse of King Henry II's empire.
The kitchen, brewery & armory are all housed in the same few rooms at the bottom of the castle.
The medieval tunnels were burrowed beneath the castle during and after the siege of 1216. To counter the invasion from Napoleonic France, a much larger network of tunnels was begun in 1797, housing secure underground barracks for over 2,000 soldiers.
monkey pile!!
No matter where you live, or where you travel to, you always get this...sometimes local people just don't have a cool what lies in their backyard. We asked 2 people at the castle how or where we could get a decent view of the famous white cliffs that Dover is known for????? They were clueless. The best answer was that we'd have to walk all the way down the shipping docks on the road to get a view of them, or charter a boat to take us out into the harbor. Those weren't real options for us at this point in the day, so we decided to call it. We got into the car, a little bummed, but what can you do right?!
We drove down the road, maybe a mile, and we saw a sign that said basically, "white cliffs this way". At first we just kept driving, still believing the locals we'd asked, then we decided to turn around because we really wanted to see them and didn't want to regret it if we found out later their was a view point. We followed the road again, maybe a mile, to a parking lot. We parked and started following the trail. 5 minutes later we saw....
It's crazy when people don't know what's available where they live...doesn't anyone like to explore?
The trails and cliffs were amazing! The views gorgeous. It was one of the best parts of our trip and I'm so happy that we decided to turn around and follow the sign!
The cliffs get their white color from the chalk that's in them. We had fun playing with it.
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| The cliff side was full of fossils which were fun to look for. This isn't a photo of one, but Luke tried to convince us that this was a dinosaur bone. |
On our way back to London we stopped to eat at McDonalds and the boy behind the counter got a kick out of us being American. I don't think he's seen or heard many of us in person. He thought we were the cats meowwwww! Apparently, some Brits are just as fascinated with our accent as we are with theirs...funny to be in that situation.
The city scape as we arrived back in London.
We drove past the Olympic Stadium. It's going to be very busy around here in a few weeks!
