Sad farewells this morning as Graeme, Maddy and Lily headed off to work and school. We had spent the previous evening putting our packing in order in anticipation of handing the hire car back this afternoon. In the car we've been able to spread out into bags and boxes. Now everything was back in the cases and two backpacks - with surprisingly little squeezing.
We sat and chatted with Emma until 9:30 to let the morning rush die down, then said bye to Emma and Worthing and drove through the countryside to Bodium Village and its famous castle.
It took us longer to get there than anticipated, so our now traditional morning tea had to be dealt with first.
Once the formalities were dispensed with, we wandered around the castle grounds.
The castle itself is as perfect as the pictures.
We were given a tour by a costumed guide who was full of interesting details. Did you know that in the medieval period most people read out loud or at least moved their lips while they read because reading silently to yourself was considered highly deviant and possibly a sign that you were in communion with the devil? Bathing was also considered a bit worrying. The church was apparently very prescriptive about baths - no more than three hours at a time and you should lie down afterwards and drink warmed wine. Helen thinks this sounds sensible.
This was a really good example of how a good guide can change your experience of a site. Both Helen and Robert have been here before, but neither of us realised how over the top the fortifications were - three portcullises to get through! Apparently the castle was built to impress, not necessarily to defend against a specific threat. Sort of like a show room for what the Brits could do by way of defences, windows (with glass!) and 33 fire places. To put that in perspective, Dover Castle has four fire places. Apparently the glass counted as one of the castle treasures and when the owner went on progress to other properties, it was removed, packed in straw and taken along.
The guide proudly told us that they believe Bodium has the oldest portcullis in situe in the UK. Apparently the Tower of London also makes that claim, but as the guide smugly informed us, the National Trust has ha their tested and formally dated, which the Tower refuses to do....
After Bodium we headed for Heathrow to return our car. We had to reroute around a largish accident on the M25 but were slowed down even more by the car hire company itself (Hertz - hissss), where the staff found a scratch on the bumper which we hadn't noticed when we filled out the condition report (completed in the dark and in the rain - sigh). The scratch apparently meant a charge of 460 pounds so Helen had a good go at arguing the point, but we eventually decided life is too short. Subsequent investigation of our travel insurance showed we were covered anyway. Phew!
We dragged our luggage to terminal 2 where Helen was reunited with her mobile phone (hurrah!) then hopped on the tube to Caledonian Road (Holloway) where we found our landlord Tim, waiting in our nice warm flat. Helen popped out for groceries and we finished along day off with stir fry and apple pie.
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