The remains of Pevensy Castle.  We went all through what was left of the castle, including the dungeon.

Catapult balls.

Beachy Head lighthouse.  This is especially for Liz.  The water is the English Channel.

This is called Seven sisters.  At high tide the water comes up to the cliffs and they are always being eroded away.  People take buckets and gather sealife in the tide pools.

Batemans.  This house was the home of Rudyard Kippling.  It is very beautiful.

This waterwheel turns a flour mill that still operates.  It has been refurbrished and they sell flour ground here at the store on sight,

The backyard of Batemans.  Wouldn't it be fun to have a cookout and party here?  Next to the trees is a large pond with a lot of water lillies and fish in it.  We could play croquet, batmitton and volley ball and still have plenty of room.  It has  an ungroomed place beyond the trees.

Leeds Castle.  It was beautiful.  It has a mote, beautiful grounds, maze, lots of swans and other birds and even a golf course.  

Leeds Castle is said to be the most beautiful castle in England.  I tend to agree.  This is the maze that is on the grounds and we went through it.  When we got to the center, there was a tower and below a grotto that we  went through and it let us out of the maze.

Some of the grounds around the castle.

The Olympic tourch.  Pretty cool huh?  I was surprised at how heavy it was.

Petworth House and grounds

A room in Petworth House.  I'm glad I don't have to dust here.

Ann of Cleaves home in Lewes.  She was one of Henry the 8th wives.  She got to keep this home and her head.  Lucky her.

Lewes Castle

 

Can you guess what this is?  Stonehenge.  It is very cool.  You get a commentary as you walk around but no one knows why it was built so it is all speculation.









The sun shines through these stones on the summer
soltice and they claim that it might have been a
calendar.

Tower Bridge on the Themes river in London,  Can you see the Olympic rings?

We read where they are now lowered and lit up every night.

We are on a boat going under the bridge

The Cutty Sark which was a sailing vessel and is now on display in Greenwich.

The famous Prime Meridian line, one of us is in the Western Hemisphere and the other in the Eastern Hemisphere.

 Olympic rings again as we pass under the bridge.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.  The original burned down and they built a new one just like the old one.  It even has a thatched roof. 

Proof that we really were at Stonehenge.

Arundel Castle reenactment of the seige of the castle.  This was the town of Arundel's Jubilee celebration.  There were also street vendors and performers.

They are battling for the castle.

The castle sits on the hill.  It is actually still lived in.

On June 11 we had a trip planned to London.  We were going to take a river cruise on the Themes, but we woke up to pouring rain so we went to a different plan.  We still went to London, but did inside things with another couple.  We found the M&M store.  A fun place and also fun things to buy.

 This was our real destination for the day, The National Gallery.  We saw original paintings by Monet, Van Gogh and other famous artists.  I couldn't believe I was actually seeing these paintings.  The building was also very beautiful inside.

The olympic countdown sign in Trafalgar Square.  The National Museum is in Trafalgar Square.

 Piccadilly Circus.  This is an area of neon signs and stores and crazy, trendy shops.

Trafalgar Square.  Does it look wet?

We decided to go to a show so we chose Wicked.  This is the stage and curtain.  The curtain is a map of the land of Oz.  We loved the show and made the train home and got home about midnight.  We even rode the underground and didn't get lost once.  We are getting better at navigating London.  I only have 2 or 3 more days of things to see in London.

Adventures in May

The other day we had a day off and nowhere to go, so we decided to go to East Grinstead, where we do our grocery shopping and look around.  Another couple, the Bartschi's were looking for something to do, so we invited them along.  The prime meridian (marking the boundary between the Eastern and Western hemispheres runs through part of the town, so we got a taxi to take us there and we took pictures of the grounds and us standing on the marker.

We walked around the town a bit, although the weather started deteriorating and we ended up having to stop and buy a cheap umbrella.  The following sign was just something we see around quite a bit.

This week we headed for the English Channel and the white cliffs of Dover.  In the town of Dover, there is a castle (surprise).  The castle is on a hill and the pictures of the town and the coast were taken from the top of it.

Also in Dover, there is a lot of history.  It seems that every time somebody attacks England, this is where they start.  There are a lot of tunnels that have been dug into the chalk cliffs.  You can go on tours through them, but can't take pictures inside.  I have no idea what the signs mean.

Our April Trips

This is the front of Winchester Cathedral.  All the cathedrals we have visited have been built in the shape of a cross.

This is the grave marker for the most famous person buried here - Jane Austen.  If you didn't like her books you can just walk on the marker - it's in the floor.

Our next outing was to Windsor castle, where the queen of England lives (sometimes).  If the flag is flying, that means she is in residence.  Because it was raining, the crowds were a lot smaller, which was nice.  We didn't happen to run into the queen while we were there.

This is another view of Windsor Castle from the outside.  It is a pretty big place.

After a hard day of wandering through the castle in the rain, we stopped at Pizza Hut.  You can just see the bottom of the castle wall out the window.

This week we made it to Bodiam castle.  It looks great from the outside with the moat and everything, but there is not much on the inside.  You can, however climb up to the top of some of the towers.

After we saw this castle, we went to a town called Rye.  It had cobblestone streets and little shops and was very quaint.  We ate at a place called George's in Rye.  Peggy ordered a pint of prawns and when they came, they were in a pint jar and they still had the heads on them.  But she learned quickly how to rip their little heads off and eat them (not the heads).  Rye is near the English Channel.