End of the day at Hever Castle

Another error yesterday. Again I did the collage on Tuesday morning and posted it, forgetting that it would appear as Tuesday's blip, not Monday's. A bit of jiggery pokery later I've swapped the two but the comments remain associated with the wrong image. Doh! What am I like?

Never mind, we eventually got to Hever Castle, one time home of Anne Boleyn after a series of mishaps and false starts. First destination was the cafe for lunch. Expensive and pretty mean in soup portions which were only warm and had to be replaced. All the staff were wearing Leith's uniforms which meant that the catering was provided by a company set up by Pru Leith. Seems like they have the contract for catering in many places such as Hever Castle and the Glyndebourne Festival. Need to pull their socks up IMHO.

While Barbara and David toured the Castle (which while advertised that the ground floor of which was suitable for wheekchairs and turned out there were steps to get into the Castle) we wheeled Doreen around the Italian Gardens, The Water Maze and the Tudor Gardens before meeting up for tea and scones at the end of the afternoon. Fortunately the scones and tea were far more acceptable but 90p for a mini jar of jam was not. (we didn't have any)

This shot was taken on our way back to the car, walking alongside the Italian Gardens, created by the Astor Family in 1904 as a place to display the family's collection of Italian sculptures, urns and statues, some over 2000 years old and no doubt filched from their rightful owners by the wealthy Astors.