Monday, March 25, 2013

Oct 2013: Visiting the prettiest castle in England

So we visited Bodiam Castle

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It has a reputation of being the prettiest castles in England and with due reason.

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Dates back to 14th century.

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Now isn't that a picture postcard view?

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Ducks in the moat

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Holly trees..

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View of the entrance

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The ticket shop has a diorama of how it looked like back then..Notice the dog leg for the entrance, now the entrance is straight.

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The sun has come out, looks beautiful no?

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The moat is full of what looks like trout.

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And then we met this lady with the owl.

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oooo, the entrance is guarded by a little guardian.

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After squishing the little guardian, we went in, just in time, it started pouring with rain.

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The murder holes, from which one can drop very hot sand…

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Here’s the map.

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Ancient graffiti.

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The lady, dressed up in period costume, gave us a 10 minute overview.

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Ancient ancient stones, weathering away…beautiful.

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Some people spent quite a long time carving their initials into the stone.

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The stairs, always right way around, this is because most swordsmen were right handed and thus when they were attacking from below, couldnt use their swords, while the defenders could. You couldnt use the spear as well because of the tight spiral..they were steep, very steep.

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Peering out from an arrow slit.

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Nice view

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Loo

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A little princess in her castle

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I reach the top of the tower and peer down to the moat, the defenders would use these holes to drop stones or whatever down on attackers.

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Fairly high up, the walls werent that thick

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they have restored it well

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The inner quad

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I climb down and then reach the great hall

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Now there’s a fireplace

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Not much left of the windows..

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A little pool off the great hall

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looks so mysterious

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Looking up at the well, the folks would need a secure place for water.

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walking back out

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Diya trying out one of the little musical instruments

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You can see where the floors used to be, with the fireplaces

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looking into the quad

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Stuff that used to be dropped on people’s heads, rodents, hot sand, boiling water and rocks..lol

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Okeydokey

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on the passageway between the two towers

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the walls are mossy…old old stones

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a waste outlet

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more to come

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what a lovely view

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I reach the top of the tower

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lovely view over the rolling landscape

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a view of the entrance

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top of the tower

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we cannot climb up to it, so we head down

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it must have been very pretty once upon a time

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quite a bit has been restored

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but you can still see the hollow towers.

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Another diorama

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This stone effigy belongs to one of the descendants of the original owners of the castle.

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back out

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these old stones are so expressive..

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and the stones are starting to get mossy..i think its getting time to clean them up again

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Light through the windows..

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Bay windows? not at all

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Peek a boo

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the sun comes out again

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it looks beautiful

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the stocks…

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the evening sun starts to highlight the castle

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and shadows of the fireplaces and windows

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You can just feel the movement of people in the castle

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Wow, grandma, what big mouths you have, we head back out of the moat

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see the castle one last time from this side

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beautiful evening day

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I'm surprised at the square towers, usually square towers aren't made as they are much weaker in attacks compared to round towers, the stone shot bounces or slides off round towers, square towers are not able to redirect such shot.

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lovely gambol time

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a pillbox dating back to the great war, when people were afraid that Germans would land here..lol

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beautiful tree

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and the girls are off as well

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hmmmm, not sure

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a last view of the castle

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and then this row of trees, beautiful..

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