Another day of history. Today we went to Battle, where the famous Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. It’s an educational visit, and if you’re nearby, definitely pop in.

From Battle, we headed to Bodiam Castle. Bodiam is very picturesque. It is one of Britain’s most famous castles and was built in 1385. Given its age, the castle is in perfect condition, and the gatehouse and moat make for some great photos. Very highly recommended, and worth seeing.

A busy day. We started off with a walk around Rye, which is a vibrant market town in East Sussex with a real historical feel; not surprisingly, we got a lot of antique shopping done. We also found out that Rye is home to Paul McCartney and that Rye was home to Henry James from 1898-1916.

From there, we headed west to check out Pevensey Castle. The castle’s history dates back a staggering 16 centuries; in the fourth century it was one of the strongest Roman coastal forts and amazingly most of the original walls still stand today. As an extra factoid, this was the landing spot for William the Conqueror’s army in 1066.

With Pevensey done, we left the beautiful sunshine and ventured to Beachy Head (a famous chalk headland in East Sussex) which was cold and extremely blustery. The views from here must be spectacular on a clear day – unfortunately, the weather didn’t favour us. From there it was onto Seven Sisters, which is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, rising to 162m above sea level, and worth definitely worth seeing.

Ratings

Rye: 8/10 (A great place to buy antiques)
Pevensey Castle: 7/10
Beachy Head:  7/10 (some great views, if you get it on a good day)
Seven Sisters: 7/10

The video starts off with Kirsten walking in Rye; exterior of Pevensey Castle; interior of Pevensey Castle, Mars getting blown away at Beach Head; and finishes of with a look at Seven Sisters.

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PS – the video’s quite large – please give it 2-3 minutes to load.

After our tour of the Kent countryside, we said goodbye to Una and Reg, and set our compass (well, GPS) to take us to Hever (pronounced like fever, not never, apparently) Castle before heading down to see Kirsten’s grandparents. Hever Castle was great, and was set on large, beautiful grounds. The castle is steeped in centuries of history and, most notably, was home to Anne Boleyn; one of Henry VIII’s many wives. The castle (as one of its main attractions) has a beautifully maintained rose garden, and Kirsten took the opportunity to buy a special edition (and very rare) Hever Castle rose for her granddad who is an avid, and expert, gardener.

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Today we were given an expert tour of Kent by Una and Reg, where we got to experience true English countryside living, first-hand; and it was amazing. Lots of farms, rolling fields and lovely fresh produce, mixed in with Tudor history from centuries past. We were also taken to see Penshurst Castle which is set on beautiful grounds. Kent gets a definite thumbs up!

A wheat farm in Kent.

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The exterior of Penshurst Castle.

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We set off to the UK on the 10:00 Virgin Atlantic flight to Heathrow. It was an eventful flight (to put it mildly), and instead of landing in London at 15:00 as scheduled, we arrived after 19:00. A brief rundown of what transpired: first, there was no available take-off slot for an hour from Dubai International; then the plane’s AC system failed which took over an hour to fix (while baking in temperatures of over 40 degrees); another 30 minute wait for a take-off slot; then the tug that pushed us out from the gate broke down attached to the plane’s front wheel (and apparently you can’t take off with one of those attached); yet another wait for a take-off slot; our time in the air was good (barring the toilets being shut mid-flight due to another electrical problem); approaching London, because we were so late, we circled Heathrow for another 45 minutes; when we landed, another plane took our gate, resulting in yet another wait; finally, we landed at the same time as several flights from Asia arrived which made immigration another hour’s wait. It was all quite comical really.

But we finally made it, got our rental car and made our way down to Royal Tumbridge Wells, where stayed with Una and Reg, and our UK adventure was officially underway.