Leeds Castle

Day 2 of our weekend adventure down south. Our destination today was Leeds Castle which isn't anywhere near Leeds (the city). This 900+ year old castle is beautiful and the grounds are massive. The actual castle is settled on two islands in the River Len in the heart of the county of Kent. It used house widowed queens once their king husbands passed away and over 150 years it was home to 6 different queens of England. Henry the VIII used to visit here with Catherine of Aragon (his first wife) it has been said that this is where Henry retreated to while the plaque took over London.

The gardens around the castle were massive and Addison befriended a albino peacock. She kept asking it what its name was...how sweet!

I had made comment that I thought this looked like giant rhubarb, but Kevin wouldn't believe me when I told him and even after I looked at the sign to confirm it he still thought I was full of it. Since everyone was getting their picture taken with it I thought it would be cool to do a little pose in front of.

We walked through the house and got to see how the rooms have been updated over the past 900 years and learned that the house is still used to provide rooms for guests that stay for weddings held at the castle. Also some international peace talks have taken place in one of the conference type room there as well. This room used to be the bedroom for Catherine of Aragon when she stayed at the castle but the current lady used it for her room and this is how she decorated it. She must have liked blue.

This room was called the Thorpe Room and was designed in honor of Thorpe Hall in Peterborough. We thought that was so amazing so we took a picture of the room which really looked like a large study and a nice gathering place.

After Addison searched all the day before for her "good knight", she finally found him at Leeds Castle. But this time he was really quiet and wouldn't talk to her so she told me that he was sleeping.

Here we are on one of the islands in the middle of the River Len which is home to the main part of the castle and the court yard.

I just always get a kick out of the "push chair parking." For once there were a ton of people with the same kind that we had so we didn't get five hundred stares and points like we usually do.

We ate our lunch on the hill over looking the castle. Kevin and I grabbed the world's worst sandwich to share and a couple bags of crisps, but the kids munched on a bunch of fruit and goodies we had left over from the day before.

After going through the castle and eating lunch we took a walk around the grounds making our way out to the playground for Addie and Harry to get a little steam blown before we headed home. I had to take a picture of these gals walking in front of us because I wanted to remember how random some outfits are here and that I guess you can get away wearing anything. I really think the long, black socks make these outfits. I have a bunch of them myself from my working days...can't wait to go home and get mine on.

Like always when you are in a playground with other fellow parents pushing your kids on the swings next to each other you end up starting some kind of conversation. For us more so it seems because people are curious with our American accents. Today Kevin visited with a guy who he and his wife and kids live in southern London and they often come out to the castle and grounds to get out to the "country." With your admission to the castle you can use your tickets over and over again for an entire year. Not a bad deal at all if you live close enough to use it a lot.

On our drive home we got the drive in the tunnel underneath the River Thames as we had driven over it on the bridge. The bridge was huge and poor Addison was sleeping when we went through the biggest tunnel she would have ever seen (she LOVES going through tunnels right now).