We had to take the tube to London Victoria Station, and then we took the train to Edenbridge Town Station. There was a friendly taxi company right at the end of the road, and they quickly took us right to Hever's entrance gate. The town itself was so beautiful and quaint, with gorgeous cottages and beckoning shops; I wish we would have had time to explore that, too!
We of course bought the audio guide tour inside the castle; we've found that those things add so much to any historical site we visit, that it's almost foolish to go somewhere and not take advantage of them. The interior of the castle was absolutely beautiful. Some of the rooms were done in the early Victorian style, which was interesting, since the castle was at one time owned by the Astor family. Lucky ducks; how I would love to have an English castle as my country home! One can dream, right?
Some of the rooms were still fashioned in the Tudor style, however, so those of course were my favorites. We saw the retiring room where the ladies of the castle would sit and sew, and one of the highlights for me was seeing Anne Boleyn's bedroom. We saw the large bedroom where King Henry would likely have stayed on his visits to Hever, and the long gallery at the top of the house was very cool, because they had life-sized wax figures of Henry VIII and all of his wives. How I wish I could have taken pictures of those; the dresses were amazing!
Topiaries made to resemble a chess set
We found the center of the maze; yay!
The gardens were seriously so beautiful; we could have spent hours just wandering around those!
The entrance gate
This is the church that is just outside the entrance gates
A pub that I wish we would have eaten at; if you look closely you can see the sign is a picture of Henry VIII
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