Windsor Castle

On Saturday I went to Windsor Castle so meet Cait and Jerry who are over visiting from the States. It was so good to catch up as it's been a few years.
There was little confusion in where to meet (I forget how difficult thing are without phones) but after a few hours waiting for tickets, I finally got in to meet them.

Entering Windsor

Looking to the State Rooms

The abbey

The abbey/church is amazing. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos inside any of the buildings. But the ceiling of the church is extremely beautiful and there is the grave of Henry VIII, as well as other Kings there. Very impression.

The one downside of Windsor castle is there is no where to eat inside. We got desperate. So lunch wasn't very healthy but it was all we could get. And very tasty. (The Queen has good chocolate.)

Lunch

The promenade.

View over the countryside.

We toured the dolls house and the state rooms. I recommend a visit. The audio guide was very good and the state rooms are amazing. I can see why they have all the state visits there. George's Hall is where they hold all the State dinner and I can see why.

Cait and Jer outside the State rooms.

After the Castle, we went to get food as we were seriously hungry by this point. And then I took them to a pub. It's a must and we managed to find a proper pub with old church pews as the benches. It was great fun catching up.

I have spent the last 2 days of the bank holiday chilling out. And sleeping. A lot. I am trying to catch up after a busy few weeks at work. The weather has turned anyway so I don't feel too guilty about holing up and napping! :)

Last week at NOTHS

So last week was my last working week at NOTHS. I start my new job on Thursday! Very excited.
We had a hackathon the last 2 days. With the weather being mazing, the company got an ice-cream truck to come in and free ice-creams!

Most of the evenings were spent on the green with drinks and snacks from nearby pubs and Sainsbury's.  We had to keep moving as some love the sun (like myself); others, not so much. 

We had some leaving drinks on the last day. There were 2 other people also leaving that day so there were a lot of people out. My group sat inside (we had a lot of the sun haters) and just relaxed. And I am happy to report I didn't get drunk! :) Though mainly because I had to be up early the next day to meet some friends form the States. 

Quiet leaving drinks.

Tower of London

I had Monday off work as I was supposed to still be on holiday down south. So I figured I would use my day for London tourist things and went to the Tower of London. It was a gorgeous day and apparently everyone else thought so. The place was full of tourists. :)

From the tower to the bridge.

Tower of London.

They have lots of animals sculptures around the grounds. In King Edward IV and Richard III era, there was a zoo on the grounds. The young Prices would have seen in from their rooms.

They have a very small area devoted to torture. Apparently despite what you see in films, there was very little torture in England compared to other countries. Though we did have the rack.

The rack.

Some of the many cannons. 

The white tower (armoury)

The white tower contains the armoury and a large display. Including the line of kings which has been there for a few centuries, a display of rumour and model horses.

They had a couple of King Henry VIIIs suits of armour, from when he was young and old. Apparently when he was older, he got rather ... excited about battle. While I was waiting, a little girl, about 5, asked her mom, "What is that thing between his legs?" Her mom pulled her away very quickly.

The bit I really wanted to see more of as where the 2 princes were kept. When Edward IV died unexpectedly early, his brother Richard took over until Edwards two young sons were old enough to rule. They were 12 and 9 at the time. He placed them under "protection" in the tower of London. He then instead declared them illegitimate and crowned himself King Richard III (and apparently spent a lot of time lusting after his niece Elizabeth of York). 

The boys disappeared. No one really knows but it is believed Richard had them killed. Though some hoped they just went into hiding and lived out their lives in peace. This was in the 16th century. A few centuries later, bones were discovered under the White Tower when they did some refurbishments. They have recently been identified as the bones of 2 boys, aged 9 and 12. :(

Unfortunately I knew most of this before I went there. (I love that period in history. There are some many plots and schemes. And Game of Thrones is basically based on it!) There was little information about. I guess they wanted you to pay extra for the audio guides. 

Monument to Henry VIIIs poor wives. 

I am glad I went even though it wasn't what I hoped. (The guide book is good.)

After I sat by the river with an iced coffee and enjoyed the sun. It has finally become summer. I have just got back from sitting in the park with a glass of wine, chatting with friends. 

Battle of Hastings

This weekend I was supposed to spend 3 nights in Camber Sands near Hastings. I had a Sun holiday down there. I went down there latest-ish Friday night (it was my boss's last day so we went out after and I ended up leaving later than planned) and when I got there, it was mayhem. It took 2 hour to check in and had been like this for hours apparently. When I finally got to my apartment (with some illegal parking and driving as there was not nearly enough parking), it was nasty. The bedroom lights didn't work. Neither did there shower. The oven was from the 50s. It was dirty. And the curtains were so thread-bare, I was awake at 5am with the sunrise.

I stayed one night. The next day, it actually looked even more grim. 

I left. I couldn't take the thought of spending my precious time off there. And given the size of the queue at reception waiting to complain, I was not the only one unhappy.

Still I managed to get the main things that I wanted to do done. 

So I headed to the site of the Battle of Hastings. 

Battle site entrance.

The site is actually in a lovely little town called Battle. (Wonder where they got that from.) I took the long walk around the field with the audio guide.

If you don't know, the Battle of Hastings is the site for the 1066 battle between the English Harold and Norman Duke William the Conquerer. (Edward the Confessor had promised them both the crown of England when he died.) William won. But historians are not sure why as for most of it Harold and the English were winning. And then just kind of lost it! 

Once Harold was killed, William overtook England (with a population of ~8 million) with his 10,000 soldiers.

To the field.

 The field is now basically exactly that, just a field. And home to a large flock of sheep.

The battle field.  

Around the walk are chainsaw sculptures of English and Norman soldiers. They are incredibly detailed, given they were sculpted with a chainsaw!

Looking up from the Norman position (England would have been at the top of the hill)

And the sheep are obviously used to the attention, even the little guys.

The abbey

It didn't rain while I was out, though I left the apartment a little later than planned due to a downpour so it was a little muddy.

Abbey ruins

The Pope had endorsed William. However when Harold was killed, his body was mutilated. And the Pope was not happy with that. So he ordered a church and abbey to be built on the site where the destruction happened. It became the home to Benedictine monks for a long time but is mostly a ruin now. Though some section remains as a school and the cloisters remain beneath. Most of the destruction of the Abbey was due to Henry VIII when he dissolved the abbeys. 

Abbey ruins.

Under the ruins.

After the Battle field, I got lunch at a serious cute little cafe in a 900-yr old building. It was built to house the builders for the abbey after the battle.

The Nook cafe.

The other two places I wanted to go were repeat trips to Chapel Down vineyard and Biddenden Vineyard and Winery. I went to both before when I visited Dover and loved them. This time, I took the walk around Chapel Down and found their Herb Garden. (You are allowed; I didn't just decide to trespass!) 

Of course I also did a tasting and got a bottle of wine and case of cider. I tried to buy the cider last time and picked up the wrong box. :( My brother-in-law ended up with a free case of IPA. 

It's only a short drive to Biddenden, which is in my top 3 UK vineyards. They happily let me taste (very small samples as driving) practically everything. And their apple and pear juices are amazing! I brought a lot. (Thought in my defence, I brought a lot of juice.)