Leeds Castle, Kent, England, Sat 22 Nov 08

Wow Leeds Castle was awesome. I'd read about it in the Lonely Planet so we decided to head out for a day trip. Funnily enough the castle isn't very interesting, it's everything else on the grounds that is. We took a coach down from London (a couple hours) and it was a freezing cold day! Even with the sun out. We were all rugged up but it was hard to get out of the bitterly cold wind.

Leeds castle is set on beautiful large grounds with plenty of gardens, duck ponds and lakes. The castle itself is picturesque and situated on a small island surrounded by a man made lake.

We spent most of the day outside wondering the grounds, our noses freezing in the near zero degree temperatures. The castle had a hedge maze which was so much fun getting lost in. It was a decent size one with a concrete lookout in the center. Nick and I had a race to the middle... Nick won :(

Once at the lookout we found a grotto which drops down under the maze giving another exit out. It was filled with crystals, coloured lights and carvings of birds and faces. It was really for the kids but I found it awesome. Lots of fun.

The maze was on the outskirts of the castle grounds near the Falconry. Leeds castle houses a number of owls, hawks, falcons and vultures. It was my favourite part of the castle! The owls were beautiful. We were fortunate to see a couple of the vultures be flown as part of a group course and we talked at length with the flyers/falconers who were working with some of the birds.

Later in the afternoon we had come back to the Falconry to watch the bird flying display but they had to cancel it due to the high wind. So they just bought out a couple of the birds and I was able to pat the large owl which was amazing, it was so soft. I'm so glad we got a chance to see them. They really were simply beautiful birds.

We did go into the castle but it actually wasn't very interesting as it had been lived in for many generations and the inside simply looked like a stately home and I'm not into antiques and the like enough to find it interesting.

I'm so glad we went out there though, it was a great day out. Apparently the Falconry do day courses where you can fly some of the birds. I'm so keen to do that. What an amazing experience that would be.