Yesterday was an action packed day. Mark and I booked out a Streetcar for 24 hours, picking it up at 10 am. Our first stop was Ikea. While theoretically not far away, down in Croydon, there aren't exactly any Freeways or anything of the like connecting us and there. Traffic was not quite ideal and it took (sorry, Sweet Caroline sing along break there) over an hour and a half to get there. Luckily, we are the speediest Ikea shoppers of all times, and managed to get Mark a desk and chair and still be out of there by 12:15. So then off we headed to the English countryside.
You see, my boss's 40th birthday is this weekend, and to celebrate she was having a bbq at her country house. In my attempt to kiss a little toosh, so to speak, I convinced Mark that we should go. Now my boss's house is in a little tiny village on the train line to Hastings, near Battle, closer to Roberstbridge. Robertsbridge also happens to be the closest town to Bodiam Castle, which we had actually been sort of hoping to go to anyways and this provided the perfect excuse. Really killing two birds with one stone. The castle was again sort of in the middle of nowhere, but way cool. See, it's an actual medieval castle with a moat! Yes, a moat! It's widely photographed and very pretty. Sadly, it's pretty much ruins on the inside, but still very awesome. I've got an album's worth of photos, but they're not up on picasa yet. Instead, you can check out some photos of my new place.
Anyways, Bodiam Castle was built in the late 1300s by a knight during the 100 years war with France. While theoretically built to be a defensive sort of place, with a drawbridge and a gatehouse with holes for pouring tar on invaders, it was also built to be a nice house to live in. So really it's a bit of a mixed style and people question the strength of the defense features, but I saw poo on you, it's a neat old castle with a moat! It's surrounded by pretty green English countryside, and you can just sit and chill on the grass outside basically all day long. Or, you can pay a few pounds to the National Trust and cross the moat and climb around inside the castle. While at first I thought the inside seemed quite small, I then sort of thought of it in context with the size of where I presently live and then it seemed a bit bigger indeed. We climbed up one of the corner towers up quite frankly the steepest, windiest staircase ever, where each step was about 12 inches high, but it was worthwhile to get up to the top. The view of the surrounds was very pretty, and I imagine in some respects relatively unchanged from back in the day. It was an absolutely beautiful day, which always goes to make a place seem nicer, but the place really was quite special in my mind. I recommend. As I was telling Mark, we don't have a single medieval castle with a moat in Oregon.
After the castle we headed just down the road to my boss's house for a big old bbq. On special was pork products from my boss's last set of slaughtered home grown pigs (you could also go and visit the current set). Let's just say the ribs and sausages were amazing. Home grown seems to make all the difference in these things! Plus you had the reassurance that there was no pig eye ball in the sausages... Anyways, after a few hours of country life, we headed back to London, getting lost more than once on the way back. But we still made it back a little after 9, no worse for wear!
4 comments:
That indeed is the perfect castle.
Aaron and I took a visit to Battle, which, of course, is the location of the Battle of Hastings. That would have made a nice little side trip as long as you were that close. There's not much there except the aura of one of the world's most infamous battles, which is palpable.
"Sweet Caroline sing along break" -- I was discussing with a friend on Friday how my generation has much more in common with the younger generation than I did with my parent's generation when I was in my 20s. One is the music. There is a definite overlap. I could never sing along to the music my parents listened to back then (though now I probably can). Another thing in common is the whole sustainability thing. I've been recycling for 35 years, and never bought the huge house, and the younger generation is in tune with that. Politically we are more similar, too, I think. Of course, it could have just been my parents and their friends, but the late 60s early 70s produced quite a shift in thinking and a big divide.
Of course, my generation seems to be able to cause a great deal of dismay or disgust in the younger folks without having a clue as to why!
Sweet Caroline was from the Glastonbery festival highlights on TV - thinking i am going to get his best of hits cd or look to see if its on itunes! was awesome was one of those i wish i was there moments that you see on tv!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VwTjOwGiSeg
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