Wednesday 25 July 2012

Leeds Castle



My routine every Friday evening has been 
  • Search for interesting days out from London
  • Get tired of looking
  • Give up
  • End up going to Oxford street!

Hence I decided to document some of the interesting places I go to during my weekends (In the tag "London days out"), the number one on that list being Leeds Castle

Contrary to the name itself, the castle is not in the West Yorkshire city of Leeds. Instead it is in the county of Kent. After much frustration of wasting a number of weekends, we decided to make an impulse driving trip to the white cliffs of Dover. Just over a 45 minute drive from London Docklands, on the way to Dover is located the Leeds castle, one of the best castles I have been to so far. It totally made me wonder what all the fuss surrounding the Edinburgh castle being the top tourist destination is all about. While the Edinburgh castle does not have much to offer apart from a couple of walls and a good top view of the city, the entry fee I felt was not worth it. Whereas the Leeds castle makes a superb family day out with acres of beautiful parkland where the kids can enjoy and you get to see history nicely preserved and displayed.  On the two occasions I have been to the castle there have been good entertainments in the grounds, once a garden sale and once an ancient game on horses being enacted. It is also good fun seeing all the rooms inside the castle maintained from the past, the most beautiful ones being the library with book shelves shooting from the floor to the ceiling and the tastefully decorated dining room. The parkland is well maintained with lots of flower plants and trees and I even got to see a black swan and a few white peacocks! Parking space is ample, the entry ticket though on the pricey side, gives you unlimited entry through the year and the castle offers fantastic photo opportunities. Overall Leeds castle is a lovely place well worth visiting on a nice sunny day.

The white cliffs of Dover is exactly what it says, white cliffs facing the sea. From the top of the cliffs you can see the French coast and the innumerable ships crossing the English channel carrying freight, passengers, cars, buses etc. I recommend visiting this area if you have enough energy left from the trip to the Leeds castle.




No comments:

Post a Comment