Disappointing Dickens World . . . but Lovely Leeds Castle

I should have known that the hot streak had to end sometime.  Despite getting soaked on the day we went to see the Changing of the Guard in front of Buckingham Palace or even the two-hour flight delay, things have been going really well tour wise. However, yesterday was the first (semi) bump in the trip.

The morning started out fine.  I got up at 3AM to do a TEFL lesson and to work on the blog, but I checked my email first.  One thing led to another and I ended up having to eat breakfast, shower, and dress in 15 minutes--something I can do (and did) but not something I'd recommend.

We got to the students' apartments to get on the bus, and the bus driver had not been told where he was supposed to go, so he seemed a bit grumpy (this was a different bus driver than before).  I know I would be if I had been given a job with no direction, literally.  Anyway, we drove off to Chatham Maritime  to go to Dickens World.  Now to be fair to Dickens World, I knew that it was going to be a bit corny.  I had been warned. Despite being named the #1 place to visit in Chatham according to tripadvisor.com, it is only the kind of place that I would visit if I lived in England and had plenty of time to visit anything I wanted ever, and I would definitely take my 3rd grade class if I were a teacher, but it wasn't worth renting a coach bus and using up a morning to do it.  Located in a shopping mall, it is like the Tardis, much bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside, and I think students learned quite a bit from the tour, and the tour guide was really good. However, I think I could have covered some of that information in a different way.  Best parts were when the guide made us all go into the tenement housing room so we could really see how crowded the lodgings were and when we learned about the original "smoke and mirrors" trick used in one of Dickens's plays.

The place is built like a replica of a section of Victorian London with places named after characters in Dickens's novels. Below is Fagin's den, for example.

And here is our group in front of the Old Curiosity Shop.  Hey, I said it was corny!

In the above pictures, you can see one of the alums taking a picture and (in the second picture) Cathy Buydoso taking a picture.  She worked for Framingham State for over 30 years before she retired!  She definitely deserves to have a good time on this trip:)

 It wasn't a complete waste of time; I just do not think it was the best use of the time, but part of this trip is really testing the waters and figuring out what to do (and not to do) the next time it is my turn to run the trip.  I think what I will do instead is use the money to have a guide take us on a Dickens Walk through London.

We were about 45 minutes early for the bus, so we decided to eat in the mall instead of at Leeds Castle because it would most likely be cheaper. Almost everyone went to a diner, but Jane and I went to a place called Nando's, mainly because we figured it would be faster than if all 17 of us (one student stayed home) went into the same restaurant. We were in a hurry, so I only got a spicy chicken wrap, but I definitely want to go back and get more of that chicken and sauce! It is a Afro-Luso, African and South American, chicken place is the best way for me to describe it. http://www.nandos.co.uk/restaurants/our-restaurants.  I also learned later that this chain of restaurants is the largest purchaser of South African Art in the United Kingdom.  Who knew?

Some of the diner diners were a  little bit late waiting to pay for their bill. I only mention this because I think it is a good example of experience vs. inexperience.  The ladies also ate at the diner, but they were out in time because they paid in advance (something easy to do here because there is no tipping); however, the students did not.  To be fair though, I would never have thought to pay ahead of time when I was in my early 20s.

Then we were onto the bus for the half hour ride to Kent and to visit Leeds Castle which claims to be "the loveliest castle in the world."  It is truly lovely and a place that seems to be a livable space as opposed to Buckingham Palace or even Windsor Castle, which are so imposing.

You can see from the following pictures that there is a beautiful winding walk to get from the entrance to the grounds to the castle itself.  Along the way, we saw many birds and lots of smaller ponds.

The students really liked the peacocks, but they did not spread out their feathers for us.

Once you get through the walkway, you can see the castle itself.  In fact if you look through the trees in the picture with the girl in the boots (that's Amber), you can see the castle.

I think this was an interesting trip for everyone because this castle has gone through so many owners and shows the difference between a royal abode and one that merely received royalty and had upper class people and aristocrats living in it. So many of the owners had to sell it because of death duty taxes and the major cost in upkeep (something many of our trip goers understand all because of Downton Abbey:).  In fact, the last owner, Lady Bailie, was the daughter of a British Aristocrat and an American Heiress of Standard Oil.

And here is our crazy group photo! I wanted one where people were kinda acting crazy (like their regular selves) because all our group photos have been kinds of stiff. I don't think they were crazy enough--castles kind of make a person want to behave better--but I'll take it.

Once we went in the castle, people went at their own pace through the self guided tour.  Unlike, some of the other places we have seen, visitors are allowed to take pictures inside the castle as well.

The best thing about this place is that you can actually stay the night! I got a brochure, but I have not had the heart to actually look and see how much it would cost.  You can also stay in some of the "cottages" on the grounds (all of which are twice--at least--the size of my house).

They had a giant gingerbread castle made for the holidays and have, apparently just auctioned it off for charity.  It is huge and still fills the room with a gingerbread smell.

Here is the Maidens Tower.

And here is a closer picture of the front of the castle, which is where a visitor exits the tour.

After the tour a group of us went to the maze.  We thought we were doing okay, and another tourist on the outside tried to help us.  But . . . we weren't.  Finally, this very nice elderly gentleman that works there took pity on us (we must have looked cold and bedraggled) and showed us how to get to the center. Here we are happy pre-maze.

And here are views of maze and from inside and the center.

Then when you leave, you get to go through this underground grotto!  More pics about this later. I have to get ready to go to the Harry Potter exhibit at Warner Brothers Studio tomorrow, and I do not want to be flying around like a crazy person in the morning like yesterday.