A trip to Kent - and through time!

We've been away for a few days visiting friends and family (on both sides) down in Kent.  We also managed a daytrip to London.  In that time we managed to go from the mesozoic era, at the Natural History Museum, through medieval times with a visit to Bodiam Castle, we visited friends who live in a Manor House parts of which date from the 14th Century, Victorian through to 2nd World War life at Yesterday's World, up to present day farming, skyping with cousins in France and much more besides!
First we went to stay with an old school friend G, and her family; husband S and girls R who's 3 and L,1, for a couple of days.  Both G and I admitted to each other later that we were a little nervous about how the girls would all get on together, but all was well and M asked the second day if she would be seeing R again sometime and L and I took a particular shine to each other.
The second day we had our promised day in London, as M in particular hadn't visited her friend the T-Rex at the NHM for nearly a year!  This time we just spent the morning there, having agreed that we would try somewhere else as well, and just went to see the dinosaurs, K has got over her fear of animatronic dinosaurs, so we all stuck together.

M's friend

K & M with a Gallimimus

 












In the afternoon we went to the British Museum.  The girls had definite ideas about what they didn't want to see (anything to do with the Greeks or Romans or Medieval Times!), so we looked at the Clocks, the mechanism, development and in particular ships clocks (very important when you go sailing at bedtime!).  Little legs do tend to flag after a while and M in particular had had enough by about half three, so wasn't particularly interested in looking at Chinese porcelain, but both K & M's interest was captured by the inspirational Tree of Life in the Africa room.

A rather impressive clock!

The Tree of Life

The next day we moved on to A's Uncle P & Aunty M who farm down on the Romney Marsh.  Unfortunately M hasn't been well and so wasn't up to having us to stay, but we still got to spend time with them.  We went tramping through the most amazing bluebell woods with P and 4 farm dogs, something that had been a concern as M can be extremely nervous around dogs, but she loved them.  Both girls loved collecting the eggs and feeding the chickens and M bottle-fed a lamb.  K & M have now added 'farmer' to their list of possible professions.

 A was born down in Kent, and while he didn't grow up there, he did spend many holidays with grandparents on their farm.  He remembered visiting Bodiam Castle and so we decided to go there for a visit.  Unforunately he came down with a bug, so didn't get to enjoy the castle with me and the girls as there were no toilets up at the castle, only down near the shop and carpark.  K & M particularly appreciated it because it does tie in rather nicely with The Sword in the Stone, which we were reading at the time.  M's most pressing question was if there were pike in the moat and if so how many.  She got her answer to the first part of the question - yes - but unfortunately nobody was confident to give a definitive answer to the second part, although one of the guides hazarded a guess of around 150.  Other than the pike in the moat, toilets was the main theme of the visit, as it was this that K & M found particularly interesting.  We discovered that garderobes were so called because clothes were kept there as the smell kept the clothes moths away!  Also, while farming may have been added to K & M's list of possible professions, 'gong farmer' definitely wasn't! 

K & M in front of the pike (and carp) inhabited moat at Bodiam.

A garderobe, toilet or 'poo chute' as K & M would say.

We also followed the recommendation of M and went to Yesterday's World, which has shops, rooms and displays set up to show various periods from late Victorian onwards, which we all enjoyed and K has already talked about wanting to go back!

The final stop on our trip was my Uncle L & Aunty Ka, who have recently settled back in England after 30 years of living and working abroad in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Portugal.  They weren't around until the afternoon, so on the way we stopped off at Leeds Castle (very expensive but well worth a visit if you are going to spend the whole day there or are near enough to get your money's worth as the tickets are valid for 12 months). 

Leeds Castle

Unfortunately the weather wasn't kind to us, which was a shame, but we just about managed to get through the maze (with a bit of help from the man in the middle!) before the rain set in and we headed inside.  There we read about the history of the castle and as we went round about life upstairs and downstairs. 
It's really noticeable now that both girls are much more interested in hearing more about the places we visit and generally want to have the information boards read to them much more.  They could read them themselves, but can't look around themselves at the same time if they do that, so can't take as much in. 
We had a relaxed time with L & Ka, and K & M and I, were brought bang up-to-date and experienced Skype for the first time, so they got to see their cousins who they'd met for the first time a couple of months ago in France. 
We've also come home with some sourdough starter courtesy of S who runs courses at Eastcourt Manor, which has given me the little push I needed to try something I have been thinking about for ages.  Thank you! 
All in all, despite the illness, a very successful trip.