Today we set off east to Leeds Castle, in Kent near the coast. Our initial plan was to visit a second castle, however we got off about an hour later than we had hoped and we somehow missed a turn which extended our trip another 30 minutes so that we didn’t arrive until close to noon.
We first went to see that castle. It is a working castle. If you want, you can stay overnight there. They have meetings and weddings there. When we toured the castle, we learned a bit about the history of its owners. Emily found one owner of particular interest – Lord Fairfax. It was like a light bulb went on – “Wait a minute – we live in Fairfax County.” She thought it was very cool that the same guy that so much is named after back home lived at the castle once upon a time – or owned it, not sure how much he came to stay.
The we headed to the Maze and playground – I think all castles or palaces have them here! The maze was very good. We got lost in it before one of the staff in the center pointed us in the correct direction. Thank goodness, we did not have to go back through the maze to exit. Instead, we went through a Grotto beneath the maze. After that we got a snack and the girls ran off for a quick trip to the playground. The right across from the snack bar, they were having a bird of prey display. The birds they showcased were all different from the ones we saw at Warwick. After the show, we went to the Aviary to see the exotic birds they had on display. These were all tropical birds – many parrots, toucans and a bunch of similar birds with different names. They were very neat. The girls were both very interested and kept trying to squeeze their way up to the front to see as the guide explained about the birds.
Given that we were not going to try to get to the other castle, we returned to the playground and got an ice cream as well. We closed the playground down (4pm) and headed back into London. We hoped to make it to a store so Scott could purchase a new laptop bag, however, with traffic, we missed it by 2 minutes. The doors closed at 7. So we headed to a sushi bar we had seen when we came to see Phantom of the Opera. It was so brilliant. It had the plates going around the bar and you picked up a plate you wanted. The girls loved it.
After dinner, we headed back home. Once we found the correct road, it was actually not a difficult drive back to Richmond. I was very surprised at how easy it was to drive in. We made a pit stop at the Sainsbury as it closed at 10 and wouldn’t open til 11am the next morning and we needed milk. Then Scott decided that I should really drive home so I made my driving debut. Didn’t hit anything although I gave Scott a scare once or twice. It was a pretty straight shot home, but at the end, everyone, including me, decided that it was actually best if I didn’t drive.
Then off to bed.
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