What the Dickens?! Get thee to a Duckery!

Road trip!

you can't go to England unless you are committed to castles, I mean, seriously, what is the point otherwise?
today I got myself on the bus and headed to Rochester and Leeds Castle (which is not in Leeds, England, so knowing it is going to be 52 degrees in Leeds does not help you dress for the 70 degree weather at Leeds Castle)
Rochester's claim to fame is being the birthplace of Charles Dickens, and it appears in three of his novels - as the armpit of England. turns out he hated Rochester, but that doesn't stop them from having the annual Charles Dickens Festival that just happened to be...today! I know, what timing I have. and frankly the town would have been pretty boring without the festival.
it does however get to boast of a Norman Cathedral and Castle (in ruins) and the town has been occupied by the Romans, Saxons, and Normans. in other words, it is old.
we started out on a guided tour and we quickly cut off from it when we found out that not only was this tour going to take up more than half the time we had in Rochester, but it consisted of stopping, literally, every twenty feet to talk about mundane buildings, noteworthy apparently, because they were different types of architecture next to each other.
'here is a tudor-style home, you can tell by the exposed beams and white paneling. lets move along' shuffle shuffle shuffle 'now this other building, that I am positive you couldnt see from ten feet away, is right next to the tudor building but it is Victorian in style' um, hello? festival all around us! could you speed this up sparky? thanks, gotta run!

so Chelsey, Ali, and I split off and went to see the castle! cuz, its a freakin' castle!

notice how that one tower is circular instead of square? King John (of robin hood fame) attacked the castle in the 1200s and his men dug a tunnel under the castle and supported it with beams. they then burned the beams and half the castle fell down. he still was unsuccessful and couldn't seize the castle.



and then, there was festival! lots of people in victorian clothing all around town. in fact, I think every member of the town owns their own costume and they all get excited this time of year because they get to wear them. also learned a little fact about myself. costumed people are just one step below full-on costumed characters, and I would prefer not to have any contact with them. *shudders* I just can't handle it. stop judging me! everyone is entitled to one phobia. this is mine.



Lucky for me there was a parade down the high street so they were at a safe distance


the festival was really fun. they had carnival rides in the castle square, and all along the high street (AKA main street) there were little tables and booths set up, and people in costume all around.

but, we can't dawdle about, so back to the buses! and on to the real castle! (I mean, why see just one a day, really people, c'mon!)
Leeds Castle is about 20 miles away from Canterbury and has been occupied from about 800AD until the 1970s and is known as the Ladies Castle because Henry VIII (of course) spent the most money on the castle, making it nice for his first two wives. the grounds are, as always, extensive, and gorgeous. the castle is actually on a lake, which if you are going to go chic, it is way cooler than a moat. it has a duckery...mmmhmmm, a duckery, with over two hundred types of birds, including white and regular peacocks, and black swans. it also has an aviary and a falconry show. and, as I am learning, it is not a castle without a hedge maze...so it has one of those too!!! I know!! where does the excitement end?!


a lot of people have said that this is perhaps the most beautiful castle in the world.

we toured the inside, and it was really odd because the castle was a private residence until the 1970s, so it was redecorated in the sixties and has all this early 20th century furniture and styles in it. totally didn't seem fitting for a castle setting.





want more? ok!