England Day 5-6

After we visited Leeds castle we stayed in the town of Maidstone. The next morning was Sunday and we went to church in the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells. After church we went to dinner at a friend of Mike's dad, the Bleakleys. We had a wonderful salmon dinner and spent some time in their beautiful garden. It reminded me a little of our first house and our English style garden.

Next we took a trip down to Canterbury to see the town and the Cathedral. Here's the gates leading to the Cathedral.

We had a nice time wandering around the grounds and viewing this magnificent building and
ruins of St. Augustine's Abbey.

The trees on the grounds were massive.

We headed a little further south to see the White Cliffs of Dover. It wasn't clear enough to see France but it was quite a view. It was getting towards sundown so it was a little chilly.

We saw Dover castle as we were headed down the hill.

The next morning, we made a brief stop at the old section of Royal Tunbridge Wells. A spring was discovered here in 1606 so for a time it was a popular spa town.

The date today is the 18th of April, Rachael's birthday. Before we left on vacation we asked her what she would like to do for her birthday. Hampton Court was her first choice. Here is Henry the VIII's palace.

We arrived just in time to see Henry the VIII celebrating his upcoming proposal to Catherine Howard.

This time we found the center of the maze in 5 minutes. Maybe it was easier but maybe we are just awesome at mazes.

We picked an amazing time to go to England. The tulips were in bloom and the weather was beautiful everyday of our trip. It was overcast the first two days but we never even used our umbrellas.

I lost count of how many formal gardens there were at Hampton Court.

Here we are under a trellis. Nearby is the oldest and largest grapevine in the world. It's over 230 years old and 120 feet long.

The interior was impressive as well. I, of course, especially enjoyed the kitchens. The tapestries were also especially nice.

Of all the places we stayed, the Castle and Ball in the town of Marlborough was by far my favorite. Classic innkeeper that did everything in his power to make sure we were happy.

The rooms were old--the good kind of old. They were also quite spacious. We had a very tasty and actually inexpensive dinner at the inn after we returned from visiting the Avebury stone circle. Unlike Stonehenge, you can get up close and personal with these gigantic stones. Below is my mom and her husband, Charles in front of one of the stones.

And here's the rest of the family.

The really fun part about this visit was that there were sheep grazing all around the stones. Here's a video of some sheep having a little game of tag and a video showing a little more of the stone circle.

Well, we had to have at least one of these pictures.