Hever Castle

Of all the “touristy” places we have visited during our England trip, Hever Castle had the greatest proportion of local population to foreign tourists. A lot of locals were enjoying the sun and the grounds, having picnics, playing with kids, and not staying in line to visit the castle itself. Unfortunately, we could not afford pretending to be locals and joined the queue to see the castle (it was not a long one). Photography is not permitted inside, so we have no inside pictures to show, but our consensus is that it is a small but pleasant house that looks and has some attributes of a castle such as towers and a moat. To get an idea how it looks inside, visit the official website.

The castle is most famous for being a childhood home of Anne Boleyn, a wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I. That’s the wife over whom Henry severed ties with the Roman Catholic church and whom he beheaded not long after their marriage. One of the castle’s exhibitions displays a couple of books with comments made by Anne Boleyn.

We spent quite some time enjoying castle’s gardens. They are not as old as the castle, build in the early 1900s by William Waldorf Astor in the style of an Italian garden. Very pleasant and completely different in style from the castle. However, the overall eclectics of the place is magical and fairytale-like.