Anne Boleyn before beheading

On Saturday, we visited Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn where she was courted by King Henry the 8th. One of the things we discovered about the castle is that it was most recently occupied by the Astor family, so the home has quite a history. It is a beautiful castle surrounded by even more beautiful grounds. There was a huge playground for Maddie and a water maze (which we managed to avoid as it was a little cold to be getting wet). The gardens were beautiful and will likely to be even more so next spring.

They've maintained a number of the rooms as they were and allowed you to get much closer to the furniture and decorations than other castles and palaces we've been in. There were please do not touch signs everywhere, but no real barriers to prevent you from doing so. Probably the most interesting item was Anne's Bible that had a note in her own handwriting. Some of the rooms have been turned into an exhibition about King Henry the VIII and his six wives. How irked must Anne be to know that pictures and histories of all six of the wives are now dwelling in her childhood home for tourists to come and see! Poor Maddie. It seems like everywhere we go, she learns about someone else who had his or her head chopped off. She's getting a rather skewed view of history for an American girl. She has trouble remembering the name of the President of the US, but she can almost name the six wives of Henry the VIII by memory.

We have been really fortunate with the weather for Mom and Dad's visit. They're about to get over the jet lag and we're having a really good time.



Maddie and Skip in front of Hever Castle



Mom and Dad in the castle gardens