Kent

What a fantastic weekend I've just had in the county of Kent! The county I live in is called Berkshire and it took me about 2 hours on the train to get to West Malling in Kent. I went down to Kent to stay with Simon's good friend Ben and his girlfriend, Julia, because when Simon taught here a few years ago he lived in Kent and highly recommended it as a place to visit. It is a very pretty county and out of all the places I've seen in England so far it's by far the most 'English' place I've seen. By 'English' I mean the cute little brick houses and cobbled streets and all that. It's also the greenest place I've seen.

I arrived quite late on Friday night so we just had dinner in at Ben's house and watched some good British TV. I was happy about this and took down the names of a few shows and channels because every time I turn the TV on at my place I can't seem to find anything good!

Julia and I left quite early on Saturday morning and headed into West Malling to visit some old spots and wander down the main street. It was nice and girly and I loved it! Our first stop was St. Leonard's Tower and this was built by Gundulf (not Gandalf) between 1077 and 1108 so it's pretty old. Unfortunately you have to book to go inside and can only do so on weekday mornings but it was nice to walk around it.

St. Leonard's Tower

We then walked through a country park into town, very pretty and very English. It was like a path I can imagine characters from Downton Abbey walking along.

Swans in the country park

We spent a while popping in and out of shops on the main street and I picked up a few goodies. On the way back to the car we stopped off at the local church, another very old building.

West Malling Church

Our next stop was a big football match. It was Julia's first time watching Ben and I could tell she was very excited ;) It was a good win for his team , 5-0, and it was a real experience for me seeing such die hard fans screaming from the sidelines.

Ben in action ;)

That evening we went out for a few drinks at a local pub where I met some great people and then we headed to an Indian Restaurant where we spent the rest of the night. It was a great night, great food and even better company.

On Sunday we went on a family outing to Leeds Castle! I don't know if you can remember what I said about Windsor Castle and how I thought it was weird that the town was built so closely around it and how I thought a castle should be in the middle of the countryside? Well I think if you want an idyllic, picture perfect castle then Leeds Castle must be pretty up there as far as these types of castles go. I thought it was gorgeous and wouldn't mind living there. The castle is surrounded parkland, a golf course and several gardens. When we walked up to the castle we walked past several lakes with lots of swans and various other birds flying around. I really felt like I was walking back in time.

Ready to see a castle!

Peacock!

Black swan with castle in the back

About to go into the castle

 It's weird to say this but the castle had a real homely feel to it. I liked all the wood carvings and the rooms weren't too big, it really felt like a nice big house. The castle has been situated on the site since 1119 and has had many owners but maybe the most famous person to live here was Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon in the 16th century. I got to see her room :) The castle has been open to the public since 1976 and the ticket, like the one from Windsor, is valid for a year so maybe when the weather gets better I'll head there for a picnic. Apparently in the summer they have concerts in the grounds of the castle so I'll keep my eyes peeled for upcoming events.

Queen Elizabeth on the wall

Banquet Hall

Chapel

Ben noticed that this baby had rather big ears...

Catherine of Aragon's room

Collection of shoes for Aunty J

Last owner's room, Lady Baille

I liked the castle because it wasn't too big and like I said earlier, it felt quite homely.

The next part was perhaps the most stressful part of the weekend. The maze. I don't particularly like been in small, narrow spaces and although it wasn't too bad after we'd been walking around it for a good 30 minutes getting no closer to the middle I was starting to panic a little. We decided to tag on behind people who looked like they knew where they were going but our knight in shining armour ended up been the person we least expected. This little dude ended up leading us to the centre;

Unexpected hero

I was ecstatic!

YUS! About time!

Spring is coming!

 I ate so well on this trip and the best meal was the Sunday lunch at Ben's parents house. Again, great company, great food and I haven't laughed so much since I've been here. It was a great way to end the weekend and I hope I get to get to go down that way again soon :)

On the way to the train home I won an auction on eBay for a ticket to one of my fav bands at the moment, 'Of Monsters and Men' and will be heading into London to go to that gig tomorrow night. Woop! So I'm one excited Zara at the moment!

This will be me tomorrow night :) :) :)