Leeds Castle

It's Saturday. My last Saturday here. I decided to spend the day lounging around in my room. Yeah right! I'm off to Leeds Castle in Kent. It can't be more than an hour drive. Most of the trips I've taken here are in the South of England. Many of them in the South East. Not once did I head North...another time, perhaps. At any rate, I tell the pesky Navigation system to find Leeds Castle and it, remarkably, complies with my request. Off I go. It's a wet and windy day. Again, not pouring down rain, but, enough to make people carry umbrellas with them.

Pulling into the carpark of the castle grounds I can't see any castle. Not like Dover Castle, which towered over the city on a hill. I gear up and head towards the entrance. I walk through the gates and around a corner and am confronted by a peacock in the middle of the pathway. I quickly snap a shot of him, but, he shows no sign of moving. I easily got within two feet of him without him minding what-so-ever. I snapped a couple more shots of this lovely bird and decided that I better push on and let the family that is rounding the corner have their turn with this fearless bird. The family has young kids. It will soon learn fear :).

The grounds of this place are wonderful. Seems that a previous owner of the castle, Lady Baillie, loved birds of all types. So, there is a huge amount of waterfowl here. Ducks, geese, swans. Matter of fact, the black swan is the symbol of the castle. They encourage you to purchase some feed from the shop and feed the birds. I guess it helps make sure the birds are fed well so they don't fly away and makes sure that the birds are fed with a proper type of feed instead of people dropping "people food" for them to eat.

It does take some time before I get my first glimpse of the castle. It looks a bit smaller than I thought. From this distance it looks more like a castle built for grand living and not for defence like Dover Castle. I take the tour through the castle and find out that I am correct. This castle was never built as a fortification, but, a large stone home befitting the nobles that lived here.

This place must look stunning during the spring or summer when everything is in full bloom. The birds, having been fed by visitors for so long, have no fear of humans and will walk up to you. They usually stop a couple feet away from people. If you enjoy the company of birds, or the pleasure of just watching them, this is the place. Beyond the waterfowl around the grounds, there is an aviary to walk through. All kinds of colorful birds are here; Parrots, Mccaws, Tucans, uh...and...other birds. The Tucans were really very pretty.

Wandering out of the aviary I find a hedge labrynth. I can see people standing on a mound in the center of the maze looking out. I figure that the sun is currently out and I've got nothing else pressing...into the maze I wander. There are a couple ways of being able to navigate in a maze. I decide that I don't mind getting lost and start wandering. Sure enough, I succeed in getting lost :). After enough time has passed, I decide to use the right hand rule. Basically, you place your hand on the wall to your right and never take it off as you walk. Theoretically, this will eventually take you out of a maze. I don't actually put my hand on the wall physically. But, off I wander. And presto! I'm out of the maze.

I wanted to go back in and make my way towards the center...but, my eye catches a small sign ahead of me. It says that there will be a Falconry demonstration up ahead in 7 minutes. That sounded wonderful to me. They flew a Spotted Eagle Owl and a Falcon. I'm sorry that I can't remember which type of Falcon it was. Let me tell you that getting pictures of a Falcon on the wing was not easy. They can easily reach speeds over a hundered miles an hour. We then moved on to see another bird that I'm sorry to say I don't remember the name. This bird is a ground runner. A flightless that can run quick and jump meters into the air. It hunts snakes and kills them by grabbing the snake behind its head and slamming it onto the ground, breaking it's neck.

After the demonstration I wander back into the maze and eventually find my way to the center. It, of course, begins to sprinkle while I'm in the maze this time :). There is a passageway down into a grotto underneath the maze that leads directly out. I spend about an hour wandering the grounds and enjoying the atmosphere.

It's said that it is the most beautiful castle in the world. I guess if you take it all into account, the interior of the castle, the picturesque views of it on the lake and the grounds themselves, I could see why they say that.

On the drive home it really starts raining. Not too much longer and I'm out from under those clouds and can see a crystal clear rainbow. Of course, I've placed the camera in the trunk of the car. Good thing, I guess as the rainbow was back over my right shoulder. Getting a shot of it would probably killed me while driving :).

Dinner was had at the restaurant next door to the hotel. I tried to order myself a beer that I'd seen when coming in, but, the waitress assured me that they didn't serve it. I kept asking for Websters Bitter (which I assumed was wrong). I even described where it was on tap. From the right hand side looking into the bar, there was Guinness, Carlsberg and then this one. Starts with a 'W' and is a bitter. She tells me once again that they don't serve any bitter starting with 'W'. So, Guinness would have to be the beer of the evening. On the way out I saw the name, Winston's Bitter and asked the bartender if, indeed, they served it. She, of course, said yes and looked at the tap. I thanked her, smiled and left.