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<\/a><\/p>\nThe drive was beautiful and our destination was no less spectacular- Bodiam Castle<\/a>.<\/p>\n Set amongst picturesque surroundings, farms and woods, the castle\u00a0looks like it is right out of the fairytales.<\/p>\n Walking around the castle we found discovered some beautiful flowers<\/p>\n and were fascinated by these mushrooms growing all over the place.<\/p>\n Certainly not edible, I’d say. What a pity- they were so beautiful.<\/p>\n What with all the fairytale surroundings- one bite might actually turn someone into a frog.<\/p>\n In the grounds, we were met by some lovely ladies,\u00a0all \u00a0in-character \u00a0engaging children with their puppetry and enchanting dragon stories.<\/p>\n After wandering around the place, we then went across the little bridge that went over the moat \u00a0into the castle.<\/p>\n Notice the bunch of people at the near end of the bridge all peering into the water?<\/p>\n I found that very curious as I walked up, because they simply weren’t looking up at the majestic bit of history right in front of them.<\/p>\n What do we think we discovered?<\/p>\n Humungous Carp fish. It was really amusing to see that they were almost wrestling with the ducks for the bits of bread that were thrown to them from the bridge.<\/p>\n Now that was totally unexpected and exciting, specially for the little children.<\/p>\n That was fun, but the castle itself is terrific, terrifying even. Complete with towers, battlements and spiral staircases, it really gives you a peek into medieval life.<\/p>\n The castle’s gate itself had a massive\u00a0Portcullis<\/a>, like all medieval castles,<\/p>\n As we walked through it, I wondered what must happen to unwelcome guests back then, if they managed to cross the moat and then even escape the portcullis, while seems an impossible feat.<\/p>\n My thoughts and doubts were promptly answered by our guide, who pointed out the murder holes<\/a> right above our heads ..<\/p>\n Guess what \u00a0purpose these served?.. No you are wrong, they weren’t for spying .. Medieval humour was far more gross.<\/p>\n Murder holes or meurtri\u00e8re \u00a0are \u00a0holes in the ceiling\u00a0\u00a0through which the defenders could fire, throw or pour \u00a0rocks, arrows, scalding water, hot sand,\u00a0quicklime<\/a>, tar, or boiling oil, down on unsuspecting attackers. Scary, eh!<\/p>\n Inside the castle are mostly ruins. Although most of the interior has fallen, the castle’s outside walls and towers with their turrets and spiral staircases are intact.<\/p>\n You could imagine Rapunzel sitting up there and spinning away at her wheel.<\/p>\n We were taken down a delightful trip in medieval times, by an other volunteer called William the Forester,\u00a0also in-character.\u00a0Behind him you can see what is left of the Great Kitchen.<\/p>\n The man is such a wonderful story teller, he kept the entire audience, old and young alike spellbound while he talked about old times and the castle walls echoed with laughter.<\/p>\n He is one of the best guides I have seen in a long long time and what made our experience of Bodiam Castle <\/a>a truly special one.<\/p>\n The castle itself was built in 1385 by Sir Edward \u00a0Dalyngrigge, \u00a0with the permission of King RIchard II, \u00a0to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years\u00a0War.<\/p>\n After several generations of Dalyngrigges, and \u00a0passing through several hands, Bodiam Castle<\/a>\u00a0 was left as a picturesque ruin until its purchase by John Fuller\u00a0in 1829 who\u00a0\u00a0got it partially restored .<\/p>\n The final owner \u00a0Lord Curzon, \u00a0undertook further restoration work and donated it to the National Trust\u00a0\u00a0on his death.<\/p>\n We walked all through the castle, up and down the winding steep spiral staircases and looking all around at the beautiful surroundings.<\/p>\n The day was fantastic.<\/p>\n As we left for home , we were really surprised to see a lot of vintage cars lined up.<\/p>\n Closer inspection revealed that there was a car rally- \u00a0The Tour of Kent.<\/p>\n We were lucky enough to spot some fabulous cars-one of them was even called CAR.<\/p>\n Check it out for yourself- how cool is that?<\/p>\n Some more cars..<\/p>\n Then finally, after a day well spent- we all went home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Having decided to enjoy the last of the autumn sunshine, we packed a picnic and set out \u00a0over the breathtaking Dartford Bridge and Tunnel to East Sussex. \u00a0 The drive was beautiful and our destination was no less spectacular- Bodiam Castle. Set amongst picturesque surroundings, farms and woods, the castle\u00a0looks like it is right out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[307],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vaish.sengupta.net\/of-cloves-and-capers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vaish.sengupta.net\/of-cloves-and-capers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vaish.sengupta.net\/of-cloves-and-capers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaish.sengupta.net\/of-cloves-and-capers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaish.sengupta.net\/of-cloves-and-capers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2093"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/vaish.sengupta.net\/of-cloves-and-capers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2384,"href":"https:\/\/vaish.sengupta.net\/of-cloves-and-capers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093\/revisions\/2384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaish.sengupta.net\/of-cloves-and-capers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vaish.sengupta.net\/of-cloves-and-capers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaish.sengupta.net\/of-cloves-and-capers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vaish.sengupta.net\/of-cloves-and-capers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> \u00a0<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n