Leeds Castle - Day 14 - Aug 26th

Day 2 and it's still raining.  But we are dry and enjoy breakfast again with views of the Castle.  After a huge British breakfast - fruit followed by scrambled eggs, baked beans, fried bread, hash brown pattie and a cooked mushroom topped by a roasted 1/2 tomato we pack to check out of our abode, checked our backpacks and headed out on the grounds.

Occasionally the sun would peek out and we'd take advantage to take a "selfie".  The selfie pole that Jim bought online just before our trip has been extremely helpful and lots of fun.  No looking for passersby to take our pic and we control the background.  The last 2 trips we had very few pics with either or both of us in the pic and decided to change that this trip.

After the selfie and a few other garden pics we focused on touring the castle.  It's history, dating back to 800AD  is long and varied though few "owned" it for long. 

Leeds Castle has been a Norman stronghold; the private property of six of England’s medieval queens; a palace used by Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon; a Jacobean country house; a Georgian mansion; an elegant early 20th century retreat for the influential and famous; and in the 21st century, it has become one of the most visited historic buildings in Britain.

     Castle history  http://www.leeds-castle.com/Visit/Castle+and+History        http://www.leeds-castle.com/Visit/Castle+and+History/1000+Years+of+History

     For we Virginian's this page is extremely interesting - Culpeper and Fairfax were connected with Leeds  http://www.leeds-castle.com/Visit/Castle+and+History/Jacobean+House

As it approached 2pm we headed to the falconry ring.  We found out that today they would again not be flying but would bring a couple birds to the Cafe.  Picking a table under cover to drink our hot beverages from the Cafe, we had front row seating for when the 2 handlers brought over 2 large owls and 1 smaller barn owl.  (They don't fly birds of prey in the rain because the birds just fly to a tree and it's hard to get them back down.)  They brought each separately out of it's cage, talked about it then let onlookers pet the birds explaining they received the birds as babies so they actually crave human contact.  The talk was interesting and the birds beautiful.

Owls from James Sandefur on Vimeo.

It was finally time to check out the Maze and Grotto.  I'd never been in a real maze - hedges over 7' tall and many erroneous ways to go.  It took us about 20 minutes to finally discover how to get to the middle.  But it was worth it as the view atop the stone mound of the surrounding maze was fantastic.  I was concerned about then finding our way back OUT of the maze, but the Exit path put us underground into the Grotto. 

"The maze consists of 2,400 yew trees and when viewed from the centre, part of its plan mirrors a queen’s crown.  It is set in a square, and yet, when seen from the mound or the air, the pattern is circular, this is unique to Leeds Castle and adds to the difficulty in solving it. The grotto and tunnel exit are the prize for solving the maze, and is believed to be a unique combination in the world of mazes and labyrinths."

maze from James Sandefur on Vimeo.

After solving the maze and exiting thru the underground grotto it was time to leave and return to Oxford.  We took a taxi to Bearsted station, the train to Victoria Station in London then walked around a bit to find a pub for a pint and dinner, then caught the London Tube bus back to Oxford.  A great couple days despite the rain.