Hever Castle

Goodbye, cruise ship!  We were turfed out of our comfy stateroom, and off the ship by 8:15 this morning, and now we're on our own, roaming the back roads of Britain in our lovely rental car (with the dreadful license plate which reads DU79FML!!!!), trying to remember to drive on the LEFT!

We visited Sissinghurst Castle this morning -- a treat for me, as I've read so much about Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson, and of their famous gardens there.  (See extra)

We are spending tonight at Hever Castle, in the Astor Wing.  This is the view from our lovely room towards the moat and castle.  We're about to go see the Italian Gardens (because they close at 6:00), but after that we have been told we can wander to our hearts' content in the castle grounds, and  that we'll have the place pretty much to ourselves!

Years ago when I was a child living in Surrey, we had a black labrador who was mated to one of Lord Astor's labradors.  She "honeymooned" at Hever Castle, and later produced a litter of six beautiful puppies.  One of those puppies was purchased from us by a man in Montana who my father knew, and we brought his puppy to Hever Castle to be trained by the head gamekeeper as a gun dog.  I remember coming here several times to see how he was progressing in his training before he finally "graduated" and was flown to the US and his new owner.

Another beautiful sunny day.  Mr. W and I are both bobbing and weaving from three weeks at sea -- we have to work on getting our land legs back!