An exciting day today, we trekked up to Kent to visit Leeds castle... A real castle with a rich history, dating back to the 1100s. The weather was fantastic... To the extent that we wished we had packed a picnic! Gemma had visited Windsor Castle when she was 5, but didn't remember much about it, so this was a new experience. Daniel didn't even want to get out of the car because he couldn't see a castle so thought it was going to be a complete waste of time... But all that changed very quickly. We had a amazing day of sun and fun, looking and learning, exploring and playing. I love my birds of prey, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to watch a display/talk about Owls, Harris Hawkes, and my beloved Kestrels. Though I did struggle with seeing the birds tethered, And in small enclosures... But I know they are at least let out regularly to fly etc. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the castle and reading the history boards in the different rooms. I was surprised to discover that 23 of the bedrooms are still used regularly for dignitaries and such. Glen loved checking out the moats and seeing how the fortifications worked in their day, and wandering through the magnificent grounds. And the kids can tell you about their own highlights... Today we went to Leeds Castle in Kent... It was awesome! It blew our minds. First we walked through the castle grounds for a long time before we even saw a glimpse of the castle. Daniel went crazy with his camera and is going to make a movie of it all. Then we saw the castle and it was bigger than we even imagined! We didn't know where to start but the grown ups let the kids choose, and we chose the playground! We played on the playground for about two hours... It was massively huge and full of obstacles like net bridges, punching bags, watch towers and turrets. It was shaped like a castle and lots of things to climb up and down. You could slide down the poles inside some of the turrets. The flying fox was set up as jousting arena. It was Awesomely incredibly fantabulously fantastical! Bird show...we saw three types of birds. The owl called coco was just a baby and we learned lots of facts about her. She flew really low to the ground and her eyes are fixed toward the font, but her head can turn 270 degrees which was really cool. Then we saw the harris hawk which was Austin and he was pretending he forgot how to be a bird and fly! But then he did some awesome flying and got just one metre away from us. He showed us how he could catch food in mid air. The last bird was a kestrel, who was beautiful and spectacular. It was extremely fast and clever. It could hover in mid air like a helicopter then dive down to the food. Then she would cover her food food her with big wings so no one could steal it. It looked span-tactic!! Next was The maze. We got lost! We were terrible! In the end people from the middle had to tell us how to solve it. But we got there and it was fun in the end. At the end of the maze we went down into a grotto which had carved out faces made of shells. It was a bit scary and spooky! It was the Greek Titan lord who groaned that spooked us out of there! We had a yummy lunch of sliders, then we headed into Leeds castle. It was amazing. We never saw anything so big, it had over 100 rooms and the dining table was over four metres long. There was a library with more than two thousand books in it. Daniel bought a Tudor necklace from the gift shop that has a ruby in it and is modelled on what Henry V wore. The moat was enormous and had doves swimming in it. There was a display of dog collars made of gold and jewels and also some scary spiked ones. The construction of the castle was finished in 1119, and then a ruler gave it to it his wife and from then on it always went to the wives. Lady Baillie was the last person to own it and she loved dogs and birds. Now it belongs to an historic places trust. We learned so much about the castle and history that our brains were nearly bursting. It was the best day ever! Oliver, Alfred, Gemma and Daniel