It's Monday again and once again, I've had quite a busy weekend! I thought I'd retell the weekends tales today and tell you all about a certain internet show that has restarted today after what seemed like a very long summer break!
But firstly...
The solar eclipse! If you were in the US, you would've seen it in all it's glory (well, depending on which State you were in of course) but here in Britain, we didn't get much, about 4% to be precise but when you're talking about the sun, 4% is pretty much a non-entity. However, mum and me still ventured out to the fields by my house to catch a glimpse of this 4% in all it's glory. At dinner, mum watched the live streaming of the eclipse from the US. It was quite a spectacle to see, especially as it only happens once in a blue moon. Ha! See what I did there?! I'm so funny!..... Anyway, as I was saying, me and mum ventured out to see the 4% but what we eventually saw was....well...just a normal sunset. Not that a normal sunset is naff, but I was expecting a little something. A 4% of something. Anyway, I got some pictures which you can see below. Mum being mum, took pictures on both her phone and her camera! There's no angle to be missed with my mum!
Now for my weekend adventure's! Me, Matthew, mum and Ann, my mum's friend, all went to Forest Row in East Grinstead for the weekend. Our plan was to go up on Friday, go to Hever Castle on the Saturday and then come back on Sunday.
I had Friday off so I took mum and Ann up to Abingdon on Friday afternoon as the plan was for Matthew to take us the rest of the way in his car at about 1pm as to avoid the M25 traffic. However, we still managed to hit traffic and it was about 5pm when we eventually arrived at the Brambletye hotel. We had dinner at the restaurant on-site and then went to the shop for supplies before retiring for the evening ahead of a busy day at Hever the next day.
At about half 9 we headed out for Hever. Breakfast at the hotel was included in the price of the room and included a cooked breakfast and continental bits like yogurt and cereals too. It was surprisingly good but then I didn't have much in terms of expectations. Hever Castle was about a 30 minute drive from the hotel so when we got there we were early as nothing opened until half 10, however we figured we could hang about for a while taking in the surroundings.
When we got to Hever, the disabled parking wasn't open so we had to park in the regular car park and walk over to the grounds. Once we paid and walked through, we could then see Hever in all it's glory. The sun was actually out as well which made the scene that met us even nicer on the eyes (mum had in fact said that there was only a 3% chance of rain for the whole day) Topiary, lush green grass, a quaint castle and a sunny, reflective moat greeted us as we walked down the gravel path towards the grounds. It was a great sight to behold, and one I'd wanted to see for myself for a long time. The castle itself wasn't as big as I thought it would be. It looked more like an elaborate manor house in some ways but it was still lovely.
We were able to enter the castle early as opposed to 12pm which me and Matthew thought may have been because the jousting was on this time of the year at about 2pm. The castle was lovely inside adorned with tapestries and Tudor-style beams and other decorations. The furniture was from the turn of the 20th Century but the narrative running through the castle- and really the main reason for the tourist rush- was all things Tudor and indeed Anne Boleyn. As I walked through her bedroom and Henry VIII's sleeping quarter's, I found myself wondering what they would've thought of all this commotion and how we live our lives now. Henry VIII you could argue, dedicated his whole life to building a legacy for himself; the wars, the ships, the armies, the religious reformations and of course the wives. He wanted to be immortalised in history for Centuries after he passed and you could say he achieved that and more- only not exactly the way he perhaps would've liked. I wonder, if Henry was alive now, whether he would resent us for only remembering the 6 wives, or whether he would rejoice in millions still remembering him and his Tudor dynasty as one of the most influential in history. We walked through all the rooms, looking at all the artifacts including Anne and Henry's letters to one another in the good times, and Anne's desperate letter to the King in the....not so good times. I read all about how Anne was raised as a bright, intelligent and sophisticated French lady who stood out from the other English ladies when she returned there from Court in Paris. She had her whole life ahead of her before she fell into the King's affections. Some may argue that Anne did commit adultery, others may think not. I think not. From what I've read, she seemed like quite an intelligent woman with plenty of intuition, so to think she would risk doing such a thing knowing the fate she would face? I just don't think she would've done it.
Once we explored the castle, we had lunch outside the castle where we then felt some of that 3% fall on us, then wandered around the grounds and then went to watch the jousting. The jousting didn't quite live up to any of our expectations with me and Matthew thinking it went on a bit too long and didn't include as much jousting as we would've liked- more just men in dress up running about with swords and shields occasionally breaking out into a fight- jousting that Henry VIII himself would've been outraged at. Talking of Henry VIII, a man dressed as him did the comparing and the commentary of the whole thing which added a bit of a strange if not slightly comedic narrative to the whole thing. Again, we all got a dashing of that 3% briefly before it stopped again.
It was now mid to late afternoon. We were due to meet back with mum and Ann at about 5:15 so we decided to find the water maze before we went home. There was another maze called the 'Yew' maze which we did earlier in the day after lunch and now we were going to complete the second and last maze. I thought the water maze was just going to be concrete paths in a big pond or something but what we saw was something a little different. First of all, I saw kids dressed in swimming costumes! Swimming costumes!! "It's a little water maze, not a flipping water park!" I thought. Basically, some of the pathways had pressure sensitive jets that would spout water up at you if you stepped on them. Figuring out which was which was quite simple- whichever paths were wetter than others we would avoid leaving the drier paths the safe ones to take. Oh no, it wasn't quite that simple as to get to the middle, it was necessary to walk on these wetter paths. We tried our best to avoid the most of the water but when we eventually left the maze, we were both soaking wet. We sat down on the nearest bench and dried off in the sun before heading back to meet mum and Ann and then back to the hotel.
We spent the evening at a tapas restaurant and then headed back to the hotel for our final night. We headed back to Abingdon at about half 10 that morning after breakfast and got back into Abingdon about 20 past 12. The traffic on the M25 wasn't too bad considering and we managed to keep a good pace. Now with our return to Abingdon came an exciting opportunity and actually a first- my mum and Matthew's mum got to meet properly for the first time. I was excited and a bit nervous. I knew there wouldn't be any problems but you know, when you're getting two people to meet for the first time you want it to go smoothly. We went for lunch at the Spread Eagle pub and then explored the Lock for a while before I took mum and Ann home.
It was a lovely weekend and everything had gone well. As always when me and Matthew go away together, I never want to go home, but reality beckons me and I always have to come back and count down the days until the next Mulie adventure!
On the whole, I would recommend a trip to Hever Castle! It was a lovely place to explore- especially in the sunshine. However, I would say if you have kids, go when the jousting is on as this will give them a good few hours of entertainment delivered by Henry VIII himself. I would also advise to stay over somewhere if you're coming from further away. Hever stays open until 6pm so it'd be an incredibly long day if you were to travel and spend the whole day at Hever too.
So, that's all from my weekend at Forest Row but before I go, I just wanted to give a quick mention to the Youtube duo, Rhett and Link whose series Good Mythical Morning started it's 12th season today!! They started with one of their trademark food challenges and much like their food challenges of old, was a good laugh. Check them out here!
Right, I'm off now but I'll see you all again on Wednesday! Sorry it's a late one, blame that on the eclipse spotting!
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