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Published: December 30th 2006
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Old Leeds Castle Mill
Flour was such an expensive commodity that even the mills were fortified. Today started early... I couldn't sleep last night and was up until at least 3am. Mom was snoring away next to me with apparently no problem sleeping. (don't tell her I said that... lol... I'm serious). Anyways, we got up at 7 so that we could be at the Victoria Coach Station by 8:45am. By the way, a coach station is a bus station. Yesterday the weather report said that it was supposed to be 52 degrees with a slight chance of rain. I should have known better. The slight chance of rain was correct but it was more like 40 degrees with 35mpg gusts of wind. All in all it wasn't a bad day though.
Our tour started at Leeds Castle today which is actually a lot like the Piatt Castles in southern Ohio. It was built in 1119 on two islands in the middle of a lake. The castle stayed in royal hands until 1926 when it was bought by Lady Baillie, a rich heiress from New York. It remained in family hands until 2001 when the last remaining daughter of Lady Baillie died. The castle was still full furnished and much of it had been renovated by
the Baillie family to make it more modern, but only until the 1950s.
The next stop on our tour was Cantebury Cathedral. There has been a church on this site since 597a.d. This is the same cathedral that Geoffery Chaucer as talking about in his “Cantebury Tales”. The cathedral is famous for a number of reasons. First because it is the heart of the Catholic/Anglican faith in England. It is home to the Archbishop of Cantebury, who is the figurehead for the faith in England. The Archbishop is also in the person responsible for crowning the king/queen of England should the need arise. An archbishop does this for two reasons: they are suppose to be nonpolitical and by the act of crowning the new king/queen is swearing to uphold the faith as well as the country. It is was also the home of the Archbishop Thomas A. Beckett of whom Henry VIII had slain in the cathedral so that he could get his divorce from his first wife and move the country to the Anglican faith as opposed to the Catholic faith and the power of the Catholic church in 1170. The church is absolutely massive and is filled
Leeds Castle
Really more of a manor house than a castle I'd say, but still very interesting. with many smaller chapels and memorials much like Westminster Abbey and Notre Dame in Paris.
I'm sad to say it but the town around the cathedral was probably just as interesting. The entire surrounding area was composed of pedestrian streets buildings of similar time periods to the church. It was a great shopping district filled with every kind of store that you could imagine. After we saw the church we spent some extra time doing a little shopping at some hiking stores, clothing stores, etc.
From Cantebury we headed down to the coast to Dover where we got to see the famous White Cliffs and in the distance, Dover Castle. We didn't get to go into Dover Castle and are planning to do that on Sunday. If it was cold at Catebury and Leeds it was even worse down on the coast. We spent some time walking down the beach which is composed of red and brown stones about the size of fifty cent pieces or bigger. According to the guide Bournemouth, England is the only place in Britain with a sand beach. Needless to say we didn't stay at Dover very long.
Our last stop of
Leeds Castle
Really more of a manor house than a castle I'd say, but still very interesting. the day was at a 17th century tea house called “Jackdaw”. It was a great quaint little place. When we got there they already had a section set up for us with little finger sandwiches, scones (crumbly biscuits), jams, etc. The tea with milk is actually pretty good as were the scones. I can't say so much for the cucumber sandwiches. I like cucumbers but they didn't really suit me on a little triangle sandwich. After that one I feared the others didn't try them though mom said that they were good.
We ended up getting back to the hotel about 7pm and spent awhile planning out our next couple days that we wouldn't miss anything that we wanted to see. Afterwards, I decided to head down to one of the hotel bars/restaurants called The Hamptons. I ended up sharing a drink with a couple named David and Michelle from Manchester, England that had just arrived for new years. Michelle had relatives that live in Canada, L.A., New Zealand, and Austria. They were both about 30yrs old and were really well traveled and very nice to talk to. It was surprising to find out that the place that they
Cantebury Cathedral
Home to the Archbishop of Cantebury, heart of the Catholic/Anglican faith in England. most wanted to go was Las Vegas, NV.
Finally here's a couple of weird things that I have seen/had happen since arriving...
1.Saw German guy in a pub wearing a Orange County Choppers hat
2.Saw a british girl who was about 12 wearing black go go boots, purple tights, a white tutu with purple crinelin(?sp?) underneath, a orange t-shirt with and multicolored halter top type shirt over the top. Oh, and she had bright red hair
3.Got asked by a British family where Buckingham Palace was while were standing across the street from it tonight.
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Tom
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Work
You are taking up alot of my time at work. But DAMN this is interesting. Oh... "JackDaw" lol