Hever was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, second wife to Henry VIII and mother to Elizabeth I. It was quite lovely. Em & I got there not too long after it opened. The castle wasn't open yet, but the grounds were. So, we went around the grounds first. A lot of the gardens were from a later period. The Astors lived there, and much of it was redone then. There were beautiful formal gardens, as well as a couple of mazes. Em loved the water maze, which was made for kids. The maze was raised panels above a pond, and if you stepped on some of them in a certain way, you would get sprayed with water. Em actually made it through pretty well, so she had to go back through so she could get wet. Then, she just stood in a water jet until she was thoroughly soaked.
We couldn't go in the castle right away, since she was soaked. So, we decided to take the lake walk. There's a big lake on the property. The walk around it took about an hour, and led through some very pretty areas. One area that wasn't so pretty was a sheep pasture. It was rather fun to walk through and watch all of the sheep run away from us, but stepping through all of the poo was pretty gross. It was a tiptoe dance to get through it.
We were starving after our walk, so we went for lunch. It seems that every place Tudor has a kids' "pick 5" meal, so Em had a ham sandwich. I had a pork & stuffing sandwich. It was OK. The fun part was when a couple of ducklings decided to visit the lunch area. The mama duck came waddling up afterthem, yelling at them to come away, but they wouldn't listen. They came really close to our table. Em really got a kick out of it.
The castle had been redone in Victorian times, but much of the upstairs was put back into Tudor looks. We got to see the bed that was there for Henry VIII, so that was neat. Of course, we weren't allowed to take pictures in the house.
We then got some ice cream, and went to the play area for a while.
It was a lovely day, until.....
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