Tuesday saw torrential down pours so it was a good job we hadn't decided to do anything stupid like go for a nice day out . . MMMM
Well a little bit of rain was not going to spoil our fun. We loaded up the car and drove to Leeds Castle in Kent. As it is half term David and I have both taken the week off work to spend some quality time with the kids.
Also as it is half term, Leeds Castle are putting on medieval jousting tournaments in the Castle grounds and we thought the children would enjoy watching knights on horses sword fighting and jousting.
The good news is that on rainy days kids go free. We didn't have to pay for Nat anyway as he is under 4 and Seb was free with a full paying adult. The even better news is that our tickets last for a whole year so we can go back again - preferably on a sunny day!
The grounds were beautiful and it was a shame it was not a wonderful sunny day to see them at their best but the castle and lakes were stunning anyway.
We arrived half an hour before the first jousting match was due to begin and found ourselves a bench to sit on while we waited and ate our picnic.
The actors soon came out in their costumes and the show was hosted by a very amusing King Henry VIII and the spectators were split into red and blue supporters (we were for the red team)
The jousting was brilliant and Nathaniel was shrieking with laughter as the knights on their horses jousted, battled with swords and played spike the head with polystyrene heads painted to look like human heads.
The rain was really chucking it down by the time the jousting was over so we ducked into the craft tent to let the kids do some craft and colouring until the worst of the rain had past. Sebastian made a knight's helmet for Nat. Nat coloured in several pictures and even David surprised me by picking up some felt tips and joining in the fun. It wasn't in the slightest bit embarrassing when he later asked the cashier if she would like to display his art work!!
The rain eased slightly so we made a dash across the moat to tour the castle which was very interesting. Nathaniel was particularly interested in the bedroom with a massive four poster bed and a day bed near an open fire. Unfortunately the camera batteries were playing up so no photos!
After the castle we headed for the restaurant where we warmed ourselves over mugs of delicious hot chocolate before trekking over to the castle maze.
Unfortunately due to the heavy rain many of the maze paths were nearly impassable because of huge big puddles. Nat was fine because we had had the foresight to pack his wellys but the rest of us had to try and straddle the puddles or squeeze around the edge.
I was gingerly making my way around the edge of one particularly large puddle while David was filming with his video camera. Unfortunately my trainer got caught in the hedge and I suddenly took a nose dive forward, slammed my face into the hedge opposite, twisted around and landed heavily in the puddle getting a soaking wet and muddy backside and right leg and splashing muddy water in my face.
It was quite amusing if a little embarrassing as several witnesses unfortunately saw my nose-dive.
I then had to walk around the rest of the day with really muddy and wet jeans - brilliant!
Anyway we then headed over to the play park where we all had fun on the play equipment then we had a snack near the ducks and swans. Apparently Lady Baillie, the last owner of Leeds Castle was responsible for introducing the black swan to England and it is therefore the emblem of the castle. Anyway, Seb panicked a bit when a hungry swan took too keen an interest in his sandwich and we had to run away.
We then caught a boat across the river and a train back to the car park.
We had decided as we were so near to Dover to stay overnight in a premier lodge and to catch the ferry to Calais the next morning.
We therefore drove to the premier lodge where I tried to sponge my jeans as clean as possible then I left them to dry on the towel rail while we went to the nearest Brewers Fayre for dinner then back to the lodge for an early night.
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