On Wednesday, I visited a castle. My friend Olivia (who you will meet soon), asked me entitle this post "Romping in Kent", but I figured that may be a bit misconstrued.
So we went romping in Kent (gallivanting freely about the countryside, if you didn't know), taking a tour of Leeds Castle, which isn't in Leeds, strangely. Having not been to the castle since I was in primary school, I was intrigued to see the difference. I arrived to see that I, in fact, remembered nothing, but the surrounding woodland was stunning.
There were also a LOT of geese. I mean, tons of them. Even the picture below doesn't represent the sheer number of birds that were waddling around the park.
But of course, the beautiful natural scenery and lighting meant it was a blogger's dream come true for outfit photos. I must have found a hundred beautiful spots for taking them, but had to pick out the best!
Olivia kindly allowed me to take her outfit as well, because I'm now that annoying friend with a blog. Her dress and belt are from Primark, while her cardigan is from Greenwich Market. She also told me that a shop in Camden (and other places!) called Collectif sell it also! Similar is also here for online purchases.
Her lipstick print shoes are from Marks and Spencer, but are sadly out of stock. I would highly suggest following Olivia's fashion style if you are looking for the vintage vibe. She rocks it so well!
I wore these old high-waisted peach shorts, Miss Selfridge Crop Top layered over with my favourite purchase; a knitted cropped jumper, also Miss Selfridge. I'm also wearing my white Primark Converse dupes.
As you can tell, I'm a bit obsessed with cropped things at the moment, but hey! It's Summer! I do what I want! You can get both the top and jumper in a variety of colours to suit your style as well!
We took a wander through the woods and then to the gardens, making our way slowly to the maze - the thing I was definitely the most excited about!
We both agreed that we would love to live in the grounds here, specifically in this little cottage.
We finally arrived at the maze, which I was incredibly excited about as I've actually never been in a maze before. This one definitely did not let us down.
It was huge! There were a million twists and turns and we spent a good twenty minutes trying to find our way to the middle.
As we were lost for a while, always coming back to the same bit, Olivia devised a cunning trick to get us to the middle...and it worked! I won't let you know what the trick is in case you want to get lost in a maze one day (which in itself, is extremely fun).
It was a-MAZE-ing. Yeah, I said it. I know you were all waiting for it.
The mini castle in the centre allowed us to spy over all the other people who were still lost, and also gather the extent of the size of the thing.
The only way to exit the middle is to take an underground passageway out. Despite being extremely damp, it was pretty amazing.
We were greeted by this scary dude.
And a bunch of weird looking mermaid people who looked a tad too much like they could be Weeping Angels for my liking, so we made a swift exit.
Despite being creepy, the room was beautiful. The ceiling made me feel like I was in some hidden chamber deep underneath the ocean's surface.
Even the pathways out reminded me of some secret sea world that we may have stumbled into by completing the ritual of the maze.
As the weather cooled, we made our way to the castle to take the tour around all the old bedrooms. The view from the castle windows was truly lovely. I couldn't imagine living in such a huge place, though, it would definitely scare me.
I managed to bring back at least one educational fact with me; the swirly centre of this winding staircase is made from the entire tree trunk of an oak tree. Which I think is pretty brilliant.
Obviously, the grounds were my favourite thing, so I forgot to take a lot of pictures of the inside of the castle, but I wouldn't be able to do the tour justice anyway. However, if you love history, I would definitely recommend Leeds Castle for a brilliant day out, with a family or without. I also highly recommend if you aren't from England, and want a taste of English history. It is truly magnificent.
You can visit their website here for more details.
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