Vacation Recap - Day Two

Day Two of the vacation was a busy day outside of London. Our first stop was Leed's Castle. The castle was built in 1119 and became a royal palace in 1278 for King Edward I. Henry VIII transformed the castle for his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and his daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, was imprisoned in the castle before her coronation.

The maze, which was constructed in 1988, is a much more recent addition to the castle grounds. I will admit, that after searching through the maze for a while, we did get a helpful hint from a worker in order to help us find the center of the maze, and the way out.
We then headed to Caterbury, a cute town a little further east. Canterbury is home to the Canterbury Cathedral which is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It is the head of the Church of England. Thomas Becket was murdered here in December 1170 by the knights of King Henry II. This led the cathedral becoming a place of pilgrimage for Christians worldwide, and these pilgrimages provided the theme for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. After touring the cathedral, we had a late lunch at a pub (my first fish and chips of the trip!), walked around the town for a bit, and then back into the car for one more stop.

The last stop for the day was Dover, England. Dover sits on the edge of England and faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel. At one point as we were walking along the coast, Heiko's cell phone notified him that we were now in France! Which of course we weren't, but from where we were standing, it was only 18 miles away. Dover is known for its White Cliffs which you can see below. The cliffs face continental Europe and are often the first thing visitors to England might see.

In the picture below you can see the Dover Castle, described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance. The use of the castle dates all the way back to 1066 with William the Conqueror up to World War II in 1939 thru 1941.

And back to the purpose of the blog....Below is my food for today. I also had a glass of wine at Happy Hour, for approximately 110 calories, so I went about 80 calories over today.