Translation Sniper

The MBH, MBH’s mom, Adair,and I made a short excursion out to Leeds Castle last weekend. It was a fairly easy 75-80 minute drive east of London, and only about 30 minutes west of Canterbury.

Leeds Castle was built in the 1200s, and spent generations being owned by various queens of England. Most famously, King Henry VIII (the king famous for having two of his six wives beheaded) visited here frequently in the 1500s. Almost 900 years after being built, Leeds is still used today for various high-level diplomatic functions (peace talks between England and Northern Ireland took place here, as were the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Isreal.

The castle proper is actually situated on a fairly large grounds. It was a beautiful sunny, if brisk, windy day. Adair was bundled up in his stroller – they actually call them pushchairs here – and we set off. The first thing we came across was a lake and acres of rolling green gras. There were some beautiful cherry blossoms blooming as well:

The view of the castle from across the moat was absolutely beautiful:

One of the symbols of Leeds Castle is the black swan – and there were several beautiful swans, both white and black, in the moat surrounding the castle.

This was Adair’s first trip outside of London <g>

One interesting note: the tickets for the grounds were rather on the expensive side – but we realized soon after why. The tickets are good for a year! The castle was beautiful in April, but we’re sure it will be even more beautiful in June and July, when the flowers are in full bloom – so we’re looking forward to another trip this summer.