Day 10

We got up early this morning, about 7:00. There is construction on the road our apartment faces but they didn’t really start making noise until about 8:00. In this situation we don’t mind since we want to be up early in order to get our sightseeing in. Everything here closes earlier than it does in the states so starting early is better. Today we had a car tour to two castles. (http://www.londoncountrytours.co.uk/kent.htm). Basically we were picked up by a driver (David, the owner of the company) and he took us to the castles and to lunch. He was very helpful giving us ideas of things to do for the next two days and tips on when the best time to go to beat the crowds is. The castles are out of the city and having a driver was easier for us, especially Oystein. It would have been a challenge driving on the left side of the road. David didn’t go into the castles with us, which was fine. He was very flexible on how we spent the day and gave us a couple of options on which castles to see and other stops we could have made. We chose to keep it simple with a visit to two castles.

The drive to Leeds was about an hour and a half. We made a quick stop at the town of Greenich and took some pictures on the way. The traffic out of the city wasn’t too bad today. We spent about two hours touring Leeds castle and the grounds. The kids loved it! The entrance is through the oldest part of the castle but most of the castle has been renovated through the years. It was beautiful for the most part. I have always thought of castles as being cold, drafty and uncomfortable. Although there is truth in that the tapestries, rugs and blankets made it more inviting. Of course, the castle currently has electricity so the lights were on making it easier to see and the windows had glass on them so it wasn’t drafty. You can actually rent rooms in the castle for conferences and they have rooms to rent that are similar to a hotel room.

Nathan and Alex loved the moat. Leeds had an “I Spy” activity for the kids and Alex especially liked looking for things on the “I Spy”sheet. They did a great job and really enjoyed the castle.

After Leeds we went to a Pub and had lunch with David. Then we drove to Hever Castle. Hever is a smaller castle and has associations with King Henry VIII. We enjoyed this castle though were disappointed that we couldn’t take pictures like we could at Leeds castle. Also, this was a “newer” castle so not as many older items. Alex wasn’t as enthused about this castle though she loved the cabinet they had filled with dog figurines. After going through the castle we went outside to the water maze. They had boards on water that you walked on and some of the boards would cause some water to squirt up when you stepped on them. The kids of course loved that. Then we walked through the Italian garden. They are renovating it but it was still beautiful.

We didn’t get back into the city of London until about 6:30 so we had lunch at the bar and grill here at the apartments. The service was very slow though the servers were polite. The food was acceptable. By the time we got back to our apartment it was 8:30. The kids fell asleep pretty quickly. Actually, Oystein and I did too.