Castles, sheep, sheep shit and shit.

We agreed that we would have breakfast at 7:30.  I guess we didn't want to rock the boat or something because that's when Larry usually eats, besides, we had a ton to do today.  We ended up getting out of bed at 7:15 and they seemed pretty proper so I decided to shower rather than go down in my PJs.  The shower was good - actually everyone has been so far (there's only been two).  Got down and the breakfast was ready - the full English, sausages, two eggs, tomato, beans, bacon, potato and I think that's it.  We chatted some more with Larry who has lived everywhere.  He's lived a ton in Africa - the Congo, Zambia and I forget the other place.


After scarfin down the breakfast - it was huge and good, we headed upstairs to finish the packing and get on our way.  But not before the first mustache of the trip...

We got our stuff out to the car and walked around the people's property for a minute just to see some of it.  As we turned the corner, we saw all the sheep crowding into a corner and one of the dogs was herding them.  Some of the sheep tried to run but he moved a little and kept them in the pile.  It was pretty cool to watch the dog work.  We were done and headed back to the car and Jess yells, "WTF is that?  Some huge animal like a buffalo just ran by those trees."  A buffalo, really.  We headed out and down the road, and saw the black pony-buffalo on the property next to the farm.


We also saw the unicorn Jess saw the evening before.  By unicorn, she means white pony.  

Now that we were on the road, we headed to the town of Rye.  It is an old medieval city and has cobblestone streets and is really very quaint.  When you hear about an English country village, this is it.  It's one of those places that looks exactly like the pictures.  The streets are hilly and the building are all clearly very old.  Most are slanted or slightly pitched.  It was very cool - small but I am glad we stopped. We found a few geocaches while we were there as as well.

From Rye it was on to Battle - the site of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 when William the Conqueror of Normandy defeated King Harold of England and then became the King of England as well.  With William came all the Norman architecture. When the battle was done, he commanded that an abbey be built there as well.  It was a huge thriving abbey which of course met its decline with Henry VIII.  The abbey of course is now in ruins but some of the buildings are now being used as a school.  I love ruins - I could walk around them for hours.  We were able to go in to the main area where the monks lived.  It was two rooms, one on top of the other and they were quite large.  We walked around for a little more and then headed to the tower gate.

Bodiam Castle

We zipped back to the car because it was getting late and we had at least two more stops, Bodiam Castle and Penshurst Palace.  The GPS lady has been talking us on all scenic roads.  Real small fucking country roads.  At times it's a little scary but otherwise pretty beautiful.  We made it to Bodiam with little to no problem - some slight GPS set up issues but we did get there.  This was one of the spots I was waiting to see.  When you think castle, you think of Bodiam.  Big towers in four corners, a moat and all stone.  You have probably seen pictures but if not, you're about to.


Jess was waiting for me to get back to her and some lady didn't have her dog on a leash - and so of course, it's going to run over to Jess to get a whiff.  But this one was either young or totally untrained and he jumped up on her.  Not the best thing - especially when she didn't expect it.  Aside from probably peeing on herself, she was ok.  She's a trooper.  The woman just kind of looked at us while putting the dog on his collar.  I stared down the man until he apologized and then the lady did too.  Jerks.  The race was back on as we needed to get to Penshurst before 4:30.  The GPS said we would be there by 4:30.  We zipped through the country roads, trying to figure out why the lady didn't bring us on an major roads but we did arrive on the property by 4:31.  We spoke with a guy at the gate, who liked to talk and repeat himself and eventually got out of him and his cruddy teeth that the area was still open and people might be at the shop but we might now be able to get in.  We parked and headed up there and the woman tell us, (insert condescending British accent here: "Um, no sorry.  All the areas are closed and there is no one at the house."  Which is British for, "I could make an exception being as it's only a few minutes but I'm not going to."  Jess asks if it's possible that we could just run up and take a pic or two (I'm thinking 50) of the front of the palace.  "Um, no it's not.  Sorry.  You can get a good view of it from the road."  In British she means, "Like the rabble used to do as they gathered sheep shit in the fields."  Little did we know how true this statement was.  So we left - didn't buy any postcards of the place.  You're not getting my money biatch, which in American is bitch.  So we  used the can and headed out.  I told Jess, "Hey at least we can get the 'I peed at Penhurst Palace!" t-shirts, to which she asked, "They really have those?"



We headed in to the town which was really cool and from the road I could see this cemetery next to a church.  It looked cool so we stopped and headed in.  






Before getting there, there was a little court of medieval buildings which were definitely original and looked like they could have used some work.  We decided to walk around the cemetery which backed up to Penshurst palace.  We tried to shoot a pic or two over a gate but it wasn't working too well.  We walked through the cemetery and Jess found another gate which was a public footpath (there's tons here).  So, we said fuck it and headed in.  There was a huge field and...Penshurst Palace!  

Penshurst Palace

There was a wall and some hedges so you didn't get the fullest view possible but you could see the place - saving us 19 pounds.  There were also about a billion sheep.  And where there's sheep, there's sheep shit.  Tons of it.  We were a little apprehensive about walking around to get closer to the house.  We didn't want to get into any disagreements with the sheep and neither of us wanted to get butted.  Jess announces that she's been butted by a sheep before, which prompts my, "Is there any fucking animal that hasn't attacked you?"  We laugh and decide to move onward because we've already made it this far.  And the sheep, like good sheep do, start walking away as we approach - unlike the sheep in Wales which head towards you.  I can only imagine what goes on there.  We wade our way around to the private entrance, snap a few shots and then head back.  As we are walking, I start gasp and then start to run, Jess is like "Oh shit" and starts taking off.  I stop and start laughing - she's not too happy.  It was funny. 

The Killer Sheep

We then took off for the short trip to Chiddingstone.  The town is seriously a block and that's it.  Yeah, it's medieval and shit, but it's a block.  I'm glad we didn't waste too much time.  We had an hour and a half trip to Salisbury - very near to Stonehenge, which we hit tomorrow.  They say you can see it form the road but, we have the visitor's pass and might as well use that thing.  Again, the ride was pretty uneventful except for the fact that we can't really put an address in to the GPS for the Youth Hostel.  So we enter the closest intersection.  As we get closer and closer we're not really sure how we're supposed to turn off this highway and on to the road we need to.  That being said, we zip past it and hope the GPS will take us the right way.  But she send us back and after a few bungles, we are able to get to the road but from the other side of the highway.  Don't ask.  We make it unscathed on to the fucking ridiculously dark road and to the hostel.  After checking in and getting our stuff we head down to the pub to stuff ourselves.  Well, I stuffed myself and Jess ate veggies.  The potato had butter and she said, "Mmmm this has butter, it's good.  But I don't have to have butter, it's fine without it.  It's not like I miss it or anything..."  Yeah, huh?