Adventures in London: A Castle, Some Cliffs, and a Cathedral

Leeds Castle

Tuesday was the day of our bus tour. Our first stop was Leeds Castle. Not one of the biggest castles I’ve seen, but the only one with a moat. :) The moat was pretty wide because the castle had been built on two islands inside the moat. The inside was pretty much typical of a castle. Lots of rooms: bedrooms, bathrooms, a library, etc. It was cool. But, my favorite part was the grounds. There were gardens of course and there were peacocks everywhere. But, the highlight (at least for me) was the hedge maze. We didn’t have time to go through the entire maze (we only had about 10 minutes) so we went about halfway and then I took us back out. Mom didn’t think I could get us back out. :)

After Leeds Castle we headed back through the countryside and headed to the white cliffs of Dover. We weren’t able to walk up on top of the cliffs or see the castle on them, but we saw them from the pebble beach in Dover. We were only given 20 minutes to enjoy them and the beach, but it was amazing. They were gorgeous.

Inside of Canterbury Cathedral

Then we headed off to Canterbury. Side note: we saw a semi-truck that looked like a piano keyboard. It was wonderful. Anyway, back to Canterbury. We ate fish n’chips at this little restaurant. They were not great. The fish was overcooked. But, they gave us apple pie for dessert (also not the best, but still, apple pie), so I guess that kind of makes up for it. After lunch we went into Canterbury Cathedral. It was amazing. Definitely my favorite cathedral of the trip. I love gothic architecture and it was all gothic architecture. :) The cathedral had been built in 3 sections. One from the 11^th century, one in the 14^th century, and one in the 15^th century. It was awesome. You could look down the hallway and see all the way down to the end of the cathedral. It was so cool. Henry IV’s grave was there as well as the grave of the Black Prince. I loved it.

Wagamamas at Hyde Park in the rain
(teriyaki chicken donburi)

Then we came back to our hotel. We ordered take away at Wagamamas (teriyaki chicken donburi and sweet onigiri (coconut rice balls with mango sauce)). We picked up our food and headed into Hyde Park to eat it. However, London decided that it would be a good time to rain. Mom found us a very nice tree to eat under though and we didn’t even get wet. We even saw a rainbow. :) It was a lot of fun to eat delicious food under a tree in Hyde Park with my Mom. Definitely one of my favorite experiences in London. It was wonderful. :)

Enjoy the pictures! (There are a lot)