Kent trip

Last Saturday morning we went for a one day trip to Kent. The place is in South East England. We reached the victoria coach station at around 7.45 am. Waited for the Evan Evans tour bus. Once we were seated, I looked to the driver's seat to see the man who was driving... To my surprise, I saw a lady there and that too, one in her 50's. The coach had the size of a double decker bus....and I was really impressed about her courage. Our guide was also a middle aged women... There were a few Japanese people in our bus, and our guide(a British lady) knew their language and spoke fluently with them.

At first we went to Leeds Castle. It was raining till we reached there.The guide told us a little history about the castle. It was built in 1119. Kings and Queens lived in the castle once. Later it came to the hands of a rich lady named Olive, Lady Baillie in 20th century. She held lot of parties for film-stars and royal people there. She reorganized the castle using famous architects. I enjoyed the castle very much. Walking through the interiors make us think about the olden days.....Lots of huge and beautiful portraits adorned the castle walls. Accessories they used in the past were fascinating.  I saw a hidden door in one of the castle rooms. There is one chapel and a big library inside the castle. Some part of it was used as prisons too. During world war II, it served as a hospital. Lady Baillie's daughters worked as nurses there, at that time . In a room I saw a large drawing of the lady and her beautiful daughters, Susan and Pauline. Just looking at it made me wish to time-travel.  :) Those three were giving a lovely pose to the artist.  

In the afternoon, we visited Canterbury Cathedral. The diocese was created in 597AD. In 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in the Cathedral. After that it became a famous shrine. The cathedral has brilliant sculptures. I felt some real positive vibes and happiness while I went to the underground and saw the Chapel of Our Lady Undercroft in the Crypt.  The place was lighted with candles. The sculpture of Mother Mary and baby Jesus was in the middle. We sat there for sometime and marveled the peace it offered!!


We came back at home in the evening....We weren't quite tired....So there was enough time to relax before going to bed.