South England

We got to sleep in a bit this morning! (Haven't had the most sleep or the most restful nights in the last, say, 3 weeks - 9 am is totally exciting). We decided not to go in to London on this last day - instead we drove over to Kent to see Leeds Castle, which is branded as "the loveliest castle in the world". Is it ever! But I'll get there.

This was only my second day driving in my new work car. Removing the stress of heavy rain helped, and I'm getting better at driving over here. There's a lot of changes - from the obvious (sit in the right seat, drive on the left of the road) to the ones you wouldn't think of (when pulling into a roundabout, your left hand is pretty busy shifting gears, using the turn signal, and turning all at once). England doesn't even have speed limit signs in most areas - unless posted you follow the National Speed Limit (ie a two-lane carriageway or two lanes in each direction is 70 mph). And yes, everything is in miles and mph - one of the last few countries in the world to do this!

Leeds Castle has a cool history. No information on when it was first built or by whom, but it's changed a lot of hands over the years, usually due to bankruptcies. It was once owned and renovated by Henry the VIII for his first wife, Catherine of Aragon (one of the 'lucky' ones who was merely divorced, banished, and lived out her life to die of cancer), and was almost bought by William Randolph Hearst. It was instead bought by Lady Baillie, who sounds like she was pretty interesting. She was a rich American raised in the UK, who wanted to buy this estate but couldn't as her family wasn't from the area - so she divorced her husband and married a man from 'down the road' from this property. She later divorced him and married another man so that she gained a ladyship. She entertained tons of famous people at her holiday home at the castle (including JFK and Errol Flynn) and then left it to be enjoyed by visitors in perpetuity.

If I had an unlimited budget and a room like this, there would have been a secret passageway

Flipping upside down to catch a morsel slingshotted straight up from the ground!

360* panorama from the rocky hill in the centre of the maze

We also saw a great falconry show on the grounds, as well as the wildfowl (including Canada geese, ugh!) and the black swans Lady Baillie imported from Australia. It finished with a hedge maze (took us 20 mins to solve!) which ends by you walking down into the centre rock through an aquatic-themed grotto... neat stuff!
We then came back to Ashford and went out for a nice dinner with our friends whose hospitality we've been enjoying for the last several days, and played some games before bedtime. By the way, it's HARD to play Cards Against Humanity when you don't get the cultural references!

Tomorrow it's back up to Loughborough for a second shot at convincing the bank we're trustworthy enough to open a simple bank account! Fingers crossed.... And then on the 22nd it's back to work for me for the first day since Aug 27th - vacation is over for a little bit at least! Justin doesn't start school until the 28th but he gets to set up our new apartment, which we get on the 22nd.