Leeds Castle Part Two--the grotto and the black swans

As I was saying in my previous post, the maze was really fun, and once through, a visitor is rewarded by an easy escape (*cough*) exit from the maze through a beautiful but also kind of creepy grotto.  I am going to have to look up why there was a recording of someone doing a dramatic reading of  Rime of the Ancient Mariner playing there. (I looked it up, and no one says anything about this as if this was just an ordinary thing to do.  Why not have Rime of the Ancient Mariner--with wind effects--blaring in an underground grotto?)

As promised I got some pictures of the black swans that have become a symbol of Leeds Castle.  I wish I had seen the napkins with the Black Swans that Cathy said she found in the gift shop, but I didn't. Probably a good thing, too, because I have spent enough money already, and I have not yet been to a sale at Clarkes!

Everyone got back to the bus on time . . . well except for the students who took the wrong path.  They didn't realize it until they walked to a cricket pitch and realized they had headed in the wrong direction.  This, my friends, is why on these trips, everyone needs to have a phone and to keep the trip leader's number with them at all times!

After we got back to the apartments, I went with the ladies to a pub down the street for dinner.  I got one of the famous English pies, it came with vegetables (carrots and leeks) and mashed potatoes and a boat (literally) of gravy.

People have been telling me that food in London is not good.  However, I have yet to have something that I thought wasn't delicious.  Even the take away food in the grocery store was really good, and I got some good food deals to eat for breakfast and dinner in the apartment. I hope we can go back for this pie.  It was really good.