Castles are good!

Well, it's been a few days since we caught up with you all...  This post is going to be about castles (like you hadn't already guessed) which Chelsea and I both adore!

Leeds Castle in Kent, England.  "The loveliest castle in the world."  If you have been there, that pretty much says it all because it's indescribable.  If you haven't some pictures might help, but they really don't do the place justice (as we've been finding to be true of many places!).
It is at least 800 years old. Built by a Norman baron during the reign of Henry I, son of William the conqueror, and after about a hundred years it ended up in the hands of the first wife of Edward I, Eleanor of Castile. It was then turned into a royal residence for several hundred years, at one point housing Henry VIII and his wife Catherine of Aragon.  Continuing down it has been a private residence till the taxes on 5 million pounds were 6 million pounds at which point it was sold or given to the trust that now owns and operates it.

The whole place is like stepping into a post card. We ate lunch in front of the most post card-like spot, a grassy hill viewing the castle from across the moat, enjoying the reflections of the castle on the water in the moat as much as our lunch.

After finishing lunch, we went into the castle to tour the rooms.  The windows throughout the buildings were beautiful and the wind coming in through them off the moat was delicious.  ; )

The Blue French bedroom.

Completing our tour of the house, we walked around a small portion of the over 500 acres of grounds, looked through a bit of their aviary and then went into their really well made hedge maze.

Panorama of about a third of the hedge maze.

We highly recommend you go to Leeds Castle if you ever get the chance.

The next day we had another awesome experience at Warwick Castle.  It has been more commercialized and has more of an amusement park feel than Leeds, but at least they don't cover up the old bones of the castle with new paint.  ; )

After spending several hours on a bus to get up there (the train line we needed to get up there was under construction) we ate our lunch in a Victorian Rose Garden and studied the daily schedule of events where we found that there was a jousting tournament in just a little while.

That little white bench in the far of the picture is where we ate.

We went to the tournament after we had eaten and of course I was terribly excited!  : )  It was a show depicting a tournament to split up England into six parts between the English and the Barbarians (who refused to sign the treaty the King laid out).  Want to guess who won?  That's right, the Barbarians.  Ok, not really.  It was a really good show, good sword fights and really fun to see jousting (though none of them were unhorsed in the jousting part...  ; )

The King and his Knights arrive

The Barbarians arrive

Along the "road" from the jousting area up to the castle there were several activities areas such as archery and Knight school.  Chelsea and I decided we'd like to do those (though Chelsea didn't do the Knight school).  Knight school was learning how to handle and fight with a broadsword.  There were a couple routines that the instructor taught to me.  One, how to fight against someone without armor, the other, how to fight someone with armor.  

  After completing Knight school with the encouragement of, "hopefully if you are handed a sword, you'll be a little more dangerous," we went to the archery range where we got six arrows to shoot.  I went first and shot most of my arrows into the ground... ; )  But Chelsea did much better, getting a bull's eye on the second shot.  

We finally made it into the castle after being there for about an hour and a half.  ; )  Walked around, took pictures, walked up this:  

Took more pictures.  

Then we noticed people walking around the battlements and the towers so we went to find how to get up there.  We found the queue for it, where a sign informed us that there were "530 steep steps."  

Lots of loopholes!  

The battlement walk dumped us out in an exhibit which told the story of castle life through a series of rooms with waxwork figures showing the preparations of the people of the castle for war. When we got out of the exhibit we found there was going to be a trebuchet launch soon, so we went back to the jousting lawn and watched them get the trebuchet into firing position and sling a huge fire ball.  

After wandering around a little more our time there had to be done so we could catch our train home.  

Hopefully we'll get more posts up soon on further adventures and delights.  ; )  

Jeanette

Walking is Good. Taking the Tube is better.

Hey everyone! Sorry to have left you all a bit out of the loop for the past several days, but we've been busy visiting the world of England! I'll start filling you in on our escapades which continued in London for the two days following our arrival. Our first day there started in typical tourist fashion: we got lost. Thankfully Myra had set us up with a good map of downtown London, but even with Jeanette's and my good senses of direction, AND a handy dandy map, it wasn't enough to keep us from uttering those words of confusion, "Uh… where are we? And why aren't we where I think we are?" Since then, we've gotten quite good at scouting out information centers and helpful people to ask for directions. But the initial adventure of getting lost in London actually took us to a great destination anyway, because we ended up seeing Westminster Abbey (location of the recent royal wedding) and nearby Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and the London Eye.

When lunch time rolled around, we happened to be in Trafalgar Square, jumping down from lions (and subsequently hurting our feet, mine mostly!), people-watching and filming people dancing in the water. After lunch, we spent some time at the visitor's center asking questions, then we limped over to the British Museum (big draw since it is famous and FREE!) for a little bit before calling it a day and heading home. This is when we made the discovery of the week: the Tube is amazing. Especially with a hurt foot and every step bringing near-cramp pain, missing out on several blocks of walking sounded like a great plan. At first it was a bit confusing, as are most things in a foreign country, but then we realized the simple beauty of the underground train system and are now hopelessly inseparable from it.

The original fist bump. I guess it was so powerful, it broke the guy's whole arm off! Let that be a lesson to you!

Our second day in London was a late start, but went well once it got going. We headed first to the Tower of London, famed jail (or gaol), castle and royal residence. Going in right after lunch, we started out following a tour which took us by the Traitor's Gate (you can probably guess who would have been led through there) and the execution area. We then broke off from the tour for something a bit more exciting: a Knight's Tournament. Two knights would be fighting in three challenges for the honor of their ladies. The fights included use of swords, pikes, and spears. Although we could tell rather easily how choreographed it all was, it was still fun to watch and cheer for! After the fight was over, we went back inside the tower to the inner building (the Tower of London actually has two towers, the outer walls that have towers, and the inner building which is the main tower) for a walk through displays about weaponry, horses in battle, and armor.

Unfortunately, we had to slightly rush because we wanted to make it back to Westminster Abbey for their Evensong service. Not only would we hear beautiful choral hymns, but we'd also get in the building for free (and we like that!). Even though we arrived 15 minutes after the start, we were allowed in, and we enjoyed it immensely. It was really neat to see the church that my family and I watched Kate and Prince William get married in a few months ago. Westminster was followed by a walk past Buckingham Palace right at sunset for a perfect photo-op right before a delicious dinner of fish and chips at Saint Martin's in the Fields crypt.

Coming up in our next couple of updates: Leeds and Warwick castles, then adventures in Oxford, Stonehenge and Bath! 

Sleep is a good thing.

August 16, 2011 we left our homes to set out on our great adventure.  We arrived at LAX in plenty of time to get bags checked, get through security, and get a little drink or do some homework, depending on who you were.
Our flight to O'Hare Chicago took about 4 hours.  We had lunch in the O'Hare food court nearest Terminal K 16 and then boarded our next plane to London Heathrow which was an almost 8 hour flight.  We should have gotten some sleep but it was uncomfortable and impossible, at least for us, the people next to us apparently had no problem with it.  ; )

Our trip through the UK border was long.  But we finally made it, getting our passports stamped, and went on to the baggage reclaim, where there were no problems and nothing to be worried about. 

Our host Myra was there to greet us and took us to her Mum's house where we had some breakfast and I took a little bit of a nap, made me realize just how tired I was.  We went to lunch at Grim's Dyke in Harrow where William Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame) lived for the latter part of his life and eventually died.  The food was delicious, the house was an intricately detailed country manor, and the grounds were immaculate. 

We drove by Harrow school on the way to Myra's house, which she described as "the school for rich, stupid boys."  ; )  Though, Winston Churchill did attend it.

It was a little concerning driving on the wrong side of the road and being on the left side of the car with no steering wheel there.

But everything on the way was just lovely, so I'm sure that makes up for it. 

After dinner, we finally got to sleep for longer than just a nap. 

-Jeanette

Welcome!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to European Delight, our travel and study-abroad blog (we wish we were going to Turkey, because that would make our title just perfect)! We're eagerly counting down to the take off date, when we'll be leaving LAX and eventually heading to MUC (Munich Airport). We hope to keep you updated during the trip (August 16- December 1), with lots of pictures and maybe a few words as well :)

Jeanette and Chelsea