Hever Castle

I had my first vistors from the good ol' U.S. of A.!  My parent were able to come out to see me and visit England for the first time.  Since they were here I decided that we needed to take a road trip and visit some of the places that were on my list of things to do here in England that can't be reached by train.  And lets face it, road trips are a lot more fun when there is someone with you!

The first place we went to was Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn.  Over the last few years I have been reading a lot about Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII.  So I knew I had to visit here.  To be perfectly honest with you, I got into the Tudor history by first watching The Tudors on Showtime.  And as a side note, I think Henry VIII would have had a few more wives if he looked like Jonathan Rhys Meyers!

The oldest part of Hever Castle dates back to 1270.  It grew over the 15th and 16th century and eventually came to be owned by the Boleyn family.  Anne spent her early childhood here and is the most famous inhabitant of the castle.  But she isn't the only famous inhabitant of the castle.  After Anne lost her head, the castle came under Henry VIII  possession.  He bestowed it to Anne of Cleves, his 4th wife, as part of the settlement of their annulment.  As the years went on, the castle was owned by several different families and fell into disrepair.  In 1903, American William Waldorf Astor purchased and restored it, using it as a family home.  Astor not only restored the castle, but he also bulit the "Tudor Villiage" and created the gardens and lake.

In what seems to be a big trend here in England, I wasn't able to take pictures inside the castle.  You also weren't able to tour the Tudor Villiage as it is only private events.  There is a lot of history of Anne and Henry VIII, as well as his other 5 wives throughout the castle.  There is a large collection of Tudors paintings as well.  The picture of Anne is probably my favorite.  There was also quite a bit of family pictures and history of the Astor family the further in you got.

There is a Yew maze just outside of the castle that was planted in 1904.  We actually made our way through it to find the center and our way out.  There really wasn't anything speaical in the middle, it was just nice to say we did it.

The gardens were amazing, even this time of the year.  I can only imgaine how beautiful it is in the spring and summer when all the flowers are bloom.  There are several different gardens that you can walk through and around.  There is also about an hour long walk that you can take around the lake.  We opted not to do that as it was a bit muddy and was starting to get late.  Here are just a couple photos of the gardens and the lake.



There is a really chess set made out of bushes on display outside of the castle.  I really can't explain it any better than the sign in front of it did, so I am just going to quote it here for you.

"The Tudor Chess Set -- The Topiary Chess Set is formed from Golden Yew and is based on the style of chess pieces used in the time of King Henry VIII.  It was planted in 1905 for William Waldorf Astor.  Standing in front of the chess set is an armillary sphere sundial dating from 1710. This astronomical instrument was used to measure the altitude of the sun, moon and stars, from which it was possible to estimate both time and latitude."

I always wonder if you guys ever think that I actually go to these places, since I usually don't include any pictures of myself on here.  But I promise, I do go to all these places!  I usually don't have anyone with me to take my picture.  But since my parents were with me, I was able to get a picture of me and one of my parents as well!



Lincoln Castle

The other weekend I headed up north a little ways to visit Lincoln Castle.

I was able to take a guided tour while I was here.  Tour guide was great.  She was very friendly and full of interesting facts about the castle.  If you do ever get the chance to visit Lincoln Castle, I highly recommend the tour.

In the East Gate entry way is an ornate oriel window.  This window is not orginally built into the gate.  It was once part of Sutton manison.  In 1849, Sutton manison was pulled down, but the oriel window was saved.  It was sold and then presented to the county magistrates in the hopes that it would be preserved in the castle.



The castle was constructed by William the Conquerer on the site of a pre-existing Roman fortress.  It was used as a prison and law court into modern times.  In fact, the Crown Courts continues to meet here.  Unfornately you are not allow to tour the Crown Court.  That is unless you commit a crime, and they don't recommend that you do that!

To the right of the main entrance is Cobb Hall.  This use to serve three purposes, defense, imprisonment and public exectuion.  When the tour guide was telling us about Cobb Hall, she used those of us in the group to help tell her story.  I was the one she chose to excuted.  I was to be hanged, which was rare for a woman to be hanged.  For a woman to be hanged she would have been found guilty of killing her husband.  There were only a few women hanged here, maybe 3 or 4 at the most. 

Hangings were a major event back then.  People would travel for hours to see them.  They were held at the top of the tour on the outside wall.  Once, a woman hung herself before she was to be excuted so she wouldn't suffer the humilation of being hung in public.   When the people found out there was to be no hanging, they rioted.  After that happened, prisoners who were to be excuted always had two guards with them at all times to prevent them from taking their own lives.

Today you use Cobb Hall to access the Wall Walks.  You can walk all the way around the walls and see some amazing views of Lincoln.

The prison chapel is very unquie.  It is the only one left in the world like it.  Is was designed for the "seperate system."  The sperate system was designed so that the prisoners would have no contact with each other.

The chapel was designed to enclose each prisoner individually so that the preacher could see everyone, but they could only see him.  The seats were slanted so that they couldn't sit properly.  This was to encourage them to stay awake and pay attention.  However, those prisoners who were to be excuted had a bench in the back row.  Their souls were considered to far gone to save, so they didn't care if they fell asleep.

One of four surviving orginal copies of the Magna Carta, sealed by King John is on exhibit here.  The exhibit is nice, but to be honest I went through it rather quickly until I got to the Magna Carta.  I was the only one in the exhibit at the time and I wasn't 100% sure I was allowed to be there.  But once I got to the Magna Carta there were other people there, so I knew I was ok.  I wasn't allowed to take any photos of the Magna Carta, but it was pretty cool to see.

There is also a bust of King George III, also known as "The King Who Lost America."  The bust use to be part of a 15 foot statue of the monarch that was on top of a pillar on the south side of Lincoln.  It was taken down during World War Two because the RAF feared the structure could be hazard to low-flying aircaft.  The tour guide told us that they had built the airfield in the statues path, so it probably wasn't the best laid out plans.  They still have all the pieces of the statue and are in talks of putting it back together.  At one point they had it all laid out within the grounds of the castle.  The tour guide said that it was still in great shape, considering how old it is.  However the plans have been put on hold for now due to lack of funds.  I did take the opporitunity to tell him thanks for losing America though.

They are doing a lot of work to improve the castle.  They even hope to make it free to enter in the future.  All of the improvements is going to make this an even more interactive place to visit, and I hope that I will be able to come back and see it when they are done.  But I have a feeling that the improvements are going to take several years to get done.  But don't let that stop you from visiting now.  It is a great place to visit and the veiws are breath taking.  Oh, plus there is a great shopping area just outside the castle walls!  So, get in a little history and then have some fun shopping!

Soccer...I Mean Football

With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend I thought it would be appropriate for me to blog about my first soccer game here in the UK.  Or rather, my first football game.  Now I could get into the fact that the rest of the world calls soccer football and are annoyed that we call it soccer, but I won't.  Although I do find it interesting that the NFL is thinking about holding a Super Bowl in London.  I wonder how that will go over if it does happen.

I didn't have to travel very far for my first match.  King's Lynn has their own team.  They are the King's Lynn Town Football Club...or the Linnets. 

The Linnets are in the United Counties League Premier Division.  That basically means they are several leagues below the Premier League which is where everyone wants to end up.  The cool thing about the football system here is that the teams move around from the different leagues depending on how they do each season.  So, in theory the Linnets could one day be playing against the big boys in the Premier League. 

The stadium is adjacent to the park which makes it really easy to get to.  It is a small stadium, but nice.  It is set up in a way that you are very close to the pitch, or field.  Which makes it all the more easier for the crowd to taunt the players.

On this day the Linnets were going up against Spalding.  Going into this match the Linnets were ranked number 1 in their league. (As far I can tell, they still are which is pretty cool.) 

I have been to a lot of sporting events in my life and every one of them has started with the playing of the National Anthem.  That didn't happen here.  They introduce the teams and that was it.  Apparently that's not something they do here, at any level.  Oh...and as a side note, the drink of choice at the match was tea.  Don't know if I will ever get use to that, although I do like it!

I have been trying to get into football before I ever came over here, but wasn't having much luck.  In fact, I think I really annoyed my friend James with all my questions and arguing with him over some of the rules that I don't agree with.  But being at this match certainly helped.  While I still don't agree with all of those silly rules, it was a fun match.  It is much easier to understand a game when you are watching it live and not on TV.  The Linnets won 3 to 2!  While that sounds like a low scoring game, for football it's actually a pretty high scoring game. 

I can't wait to head into London to see the a bigger team play...and experience those crazy football fans you always hear about!