Hedingham Castle and Audley End

October 20, 2007

Saturdays (until we move this summer) will hopefully be filled with day trips to local castles and attractions. On Saturday, we (Emmy and Chip and Emmy's friend, Kyrsten) and the Smith clan (Ross, Jane, Megan, Ben, Ammon, Samuel and Jacob) went down to Audley End.

Initially, it was to be a trip down to Rochester Castle, but due to time constraints, it was decided that we adventure to Audley End and experience their "behind the scenes" tour.

We left rather early and arrived about an hour before "the End" opened - it was a beautiful morning with some fog (or transpiration) and frost all over. Due to the early-ness, we looked on the map to see where a nearby castle was. Due to my awesomely awesome map reading skills (not), we drove to Hedingham Castle - on the map, it looked like it was just around the corner but in reality, it was 22 miles away. There must be a village named Audley End near there ... I don't know - all I know is that we drove there and to our great disbelief it was closed ... a wedding was taking place that day. Of all the luck! Of course, the gate guard was persuaded to let us look around, seeing as "we came all the way from America to see it". Now, this is not a lie, seeing as we did come here from America (2 1/2 years ago) - I just didn't tell him that part ... oops!

We took a few pics really quick and then headed back toward "the End", which was the beginning ... The tour was really neat and I was under the impression that after March's behind-the-scenes tour, they wouldn't be doing them anymore due to the "delicate state" of the rooms on the top floor. I must say I count ourselves very blessed to be able to see this part of history (twice). I hadn't gone to the memorial for the Polish soldiers who stayed here during WWII, so we traipsed out to the memorial and took a few shots.

Next, Austin wanted to walk to "the temple" where he and Papa went the last time we came here. We all did a little jumping over the ditch (a few tears and some sore ankles). Emmy wanted all of "the kids" to pose next to a pillar, so Jane and I helped them get into position ... viola!

We brought our lunch and were visited by a bunch of ducks - Austin was really cute. He was a bit frightened about feeding them at first, but after the initial feeding, he became a professional! The ducks seemed to like the spicey Doritos, fyi.

On the way home, Austin wanted to sit with his friend, Ammon, so they hunkered down in the back of the Smith's Volvo - Megan, bless her, came into our car and kept me company on the journey home.

It was a most excellent day out, even though it was a bit chilly to start with. Autumn is my most favorite-est time of year, and to spend it at one of my most favorite-est places was a privilege.