A lovely walk through Surrey

I am finding myself addicted to these countryside walks.  Any day I'm not working and its not forecasted to be miserable out, I hit the rails and trails.  

I chose a walk through the North Downs in Surrey.  It was a longer walk and more bustling than my previous walk in Kent- instead of a quiet country ramble bumping into occasional walkers, this was much more busy, with lots of day trippers and picnickers out on a walk.   

Still...it was nice.  And it wasn't like it was crowded.  

This walk started at Gomshall Station, with my trusty guide book at my side and a back-up ye olde GPS device doubling as my camera.  I tried to follow the suggested path to get to the first stop, but I ended up hitting multiple dead ends before backtracking to the station and just walking the first stretch through the cute little village of Gomshall.

Soon enough, the pavement turned into dirt and then into trail.

The North Downs are a series of chalk hills that run all the way to Dover.   There's a couple major trails that cross them, so there was much less stile and pasture crossings on this walk.

The first stop on the trail was the tiny village of Shere, with a perfect 12 century Norman church that was a stop on the pilgrimage to Canterbury.

The village was perfectly adorable as well, with an old country pub and a place to get good ice cream.

We crossed under the A25 (a big highway) and went up a fairly strenuous muddy path up the hillside.  At the top, the path widened into the North Downs Way, a major trail that was used at least since the Bronze Age by traders.

This is known as the oldest road in Britain.

Once you get out of the woods, you get quite the view.

It was windy as hell up there, but a really good walk.  We stopped and broke out our picnic lunch, where I ended up eating a great deal of my hair as it blew in my face.

The trail lead to another ancient church on the hill- this one was abandoned, as there was no road to actually get there by car.  This marked the divergent of the NDW from the "Pilgrims Way", another well-beaten trail that runs down the valley from London to Canterbury.  I totally understand why they would want to be walking in the valley instead of the hillside, as it was much more peaceful without the wind constantly howling and trying to tear you down.

The walk was really peaceful, until I smelled a strong whiff of Sulfur, and discovered a belching industrial complex.  Apparently, they are fracking here.  This seems like a new-ish development since this wasn't mentioned as a landmark in the oh-so-detailed guidebook.

I waxed at one point about how I kind of missed the endless landscape of vineyards that hiking and biking around France entailed.  Then, like magic!

I had heard about this, but haven't had a chance to sample yet.  They are making a Champagne-style bubbly in the hills here, saying that the chalk soil is similar to that around Reims.

Further on, the Silent Pool- a beautiful spring-fed pool.  Sadly, they have a really bad invasive weed problem in the pond, and it's almost completely clogged with brown tendrils of plants that are choking the rest of the ecosystem.

It's too bad- the spring looked inviting and there are lots of anecdotes and legends of this being a nakededy kind of bathing pool, but apparently the plant is so invasive that you could easily spread it by bathing and bringing microscopic bits of it with you when you leave.

Back on the Pilgrim's Way back to Shere.

A much enjoyed stop at the White Horse Pub, housed in a medieval building next to a creek.  It was a great place for a warming bowl of soup and a glass of grape juice.

And then, back to the trail.  More sheep!  What are these, Shropshires, maybe?

Thankfully, my camera is back from the shop, so this is the last of the crummy grainy pictures.  I hope.  I must admit, it was much easier to carry the relativity small phone around then the big clunking camera and several lenses, but the quality was pretty crap.

The walk looped back to the train station at Gomshall for the hour ride back to London.  The whole circular loop hike was a bit over 12 miles, and more strenuous than the Hever walk just based on the steep uphill at the beginning.  There was very little roadside walking, which was nice, but you crossed several busy roads on the way.  I was tired, but not dog-tired exhausted.

Leeds Castle

I'm starting to get out into the countryside more.  London is fantastic, but on most days, I'd really rather be outdoors and hear birds other than pigeons.  I love history, and England is just filled with it: National Trust sites, heritage sites, historic sites, prehistoric sites...you could exhaust yourself if you tried to see everything.  It's hard to stay focused sometimes, as I can be very ambitious as far as planning and seeing as much as I can goes.

While train travel is not as cheap and easy as it was in Paris, it is still totally do-able.  Trains here are rather confusingly privately run, and sometimes you need to get creative with your transfers as far as getting to a place a bit remote as there really isn't a central website to get train timetables and maps and info in a plain, readable manner.  If you buy your train tickets in advance, you can usually get a cheaper rate, but I usually try to check the weather forecast before I head out.  It's so much easier to get good photographs on sunny-ish days.

Well, the forecast called for "mostly sunny" on this day.  My master plan is working beautifully, without a hitch.

Errrrr....

Leeds castle (confusingly, not in Leeds, but in Kent) was so charming and lovely and picturesque, I didn't even care.  The dark, damp skies added a layer of serenity to the landscape, I swear.

Kent is one of the more wealthy counties in England, and the rolling hills dotted with picaresque farms and villages made me swoon a little bit on the way out there.

The castle is on an island surrounded by a lake, which makes a nice little moat.  It has a long and fascinating history, being traditionally deeded to the Queen as part of a dowry.  Henry the VIII totally slept here, and there is a bedroom still known as Katherine of Aragon's chambers.

It was pretty much a ruin in the 1920's, when a wealthy New York-based American heiress Lady Baillie bought the castle, restored it and redecorated, and created a lavish home in the country for herself and her wealthy guest to enjoy.

She entertained everyone from English Royalty to film stars (Charlie Chaplin!  Noel Coward!) to Sir Winston in her private "home", and did so in a private and intimate setting.  What happened at Leeds Castle stayed in Leeds Castle, so it seems.  

The castle itself is still just gorgeous to explore.  Lady Bailie left the majority of her wealth to maintain the grounds and open the castle to the public upon her death.  You can have a lavish wedding here, or stay on the castle grounds, or just buy a ticket to snoop around for a bit.  And what is more pleasurable than snooping around in someone's home?   They still use the castle for private political retreats and a handful of peace treaties have been negotiated and signed here over the ages.

It's decorated lavishly, in the French style, with rooms and rooms of antiques and lovely furniture and knick knacks.

Outside, there are acres of lovely landscaped gardens to explore.  It was a bit damp and drizzly, but totally acceptable weather as far as walking around a castle gardens go.  Songbirds in the trees and hedges, and plenty of waterfowl calling the lake and the moat their home.

It's a really pleasant place to visit.  Some castles are fairly devoid of ambiance and furnishing and personal touches, but this one was really quite gorgeous without reaching for that gaudy Versailles look.   Plus, the American connection that saved it from ruin makes it especially charming.