Friday, October 13, 2006

Hever Castle


On Sunday, we did not have any plans. I wanted to go for a walk by the seaside, so on the recommendation of Alex' friend we decided to drive to a small place called Rye on the English Channel. Half way there, it was past lunch time and we decided to stop in the lovely country side of Kent to have a pub lunch, while driving through charming little villages we were led to Hever Castle.

The 13th Century castle of the famous Kent countryside was the home of Anne Boleyn, Henry the VIII's second wife. The place comes right out of a fairy tale. It has a maze made of Yew trees and a water maze which sprays water according to where one steps. The castle looked very large from up the hill but was the size of a large house up close.


The lake was beautiful especially with the perfect clear blue sky reflecting on its surface. The walk up to the lake is lovely, I could imagine very well how the queens of Henry VIII must have been charmed by the place. I imagined, they occupied their time by taking walks long the garden to the lake and spending their afternoons in the spring and summer nursing the rose garden.

It was a very lovely Sunday and I look forward to our next spontaneous expedition to the English countryside or seaside.

http://www.hever-castle.co.uk/

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The rampant and out of control crime and violence in South Africa is disturbing indeed. The government is corrupt and ill equipped to deal with the problem.

I feel very fortunate indeed to live in a place mostly safe from kind of thing.

Anonymous said...

oops. This for the next post down.

Sushi Junkie said...

wow..sounds like a great trip :)
the castle n surroundings look great :D i immediately imagine royal ladies walking around the castle garden on a lovely afternoon..

i'll be waiting for ur next trip to the english countryside :D