London, UK | Day 5 | Castles, Cliffs & Cathedrals

On Sunday, October 5th, my mom and I woke up early because we had a day trip planned! We decided to get to the bus station early so we could stop by Starbucks before our tour. I was intrigued to see that they offered a pumpkin spice macchiato, which I’ve never seen on a menu in the U.S.! It wasn’t as sweet as I wanted it to be, so a bit of a disappointment.

Anyway, right around 9 am, we all boarded the bus, and we were off to Leeds Castle, which was about an hour and a half away. This is a historic landmark in the UK where many different queens have lived, including Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon. While the castle itself is only about 200 years old, the site has been around since the 800s!

Mom and I love a good castle tour, so we definitely enjoyed ourselves. One of the most recent owners of Leeds Castle was a woman named Lady Baillie, who used her extensive fortune to repair and restore the castle and all of its associated buildings. One of my favorite stories of this woman is how she would have dinner parties but would stay upstairs until a few hours in, and then reluctantly join the group. That’s my kinda girl!

My favorite part of the castle was, of course, the library. It was so beautiful! Look at this window seat – can you imagine spending your mornings with a cup of coffee and a good book and staring at this view? Sigh!

After touring the castle, Mom and I strolled around the grounds. We poked around in the gift shop, where I got a beautiful leather bookmark, and then I wanted to find the bookshop that was listed on the map we were given. We had a hard time finding it, until I realized I was looking at the map wrong and it was in an entirely different area of the estate. Womp, womp!

We had about two hours to enjoy the castle and its accompanying attractions before it was time to board the bus again and head to our second stop of the day: the Cliffs of Dover. Since I have seen the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, I think my expectations were a bit too high. These cliffs were fine, but we were pretty far away from them, and this was more of a quick photo-op stop than anything else. We had maybe 20 minutes here. Apparently, though, if you squint hard enough, you can see France in the distance. (I did not see France, but I also wasn’t sure what I was looking for.)

Also, during this stop, my mom took a tumble! She was trying to step onto a sidewalk to get a photo, and lost her footing and fell right onto the rough pebbles. I was not a very good daughter when this happened. I am usually a very good daughter, but I always get nervous when my mom falls (did she hit her head? can she stand? is she okay???), and it manifests as panic. A nice older man stopped to make sure she was okay, and she said she was, and so I was like, “Well, get up then. People are staring.” LISTEN, I SAID I WAS NOT A GOOD DAUGHTER. I AM NOT PROUD OF THIS. My mom gave me a death glare, and even the older man was like, “She can take a moment if she needs it.” Anyway, my mom’s knee was a little bruised, but she was ultimately fine. And I apologized.

Once we were done at the Cliffs, it was time for our last stop of the day, which was Canterbury Cathedral. What a beautiful place! It was founded in 597 AD (but rebuilt in 1174 after a fire), which is just something I can’t wrap my mind around. This is also the cathedral of the archbishop of Canterbury, who is the spiritual leader of the Church of England. Even cooler – they recently announced that the next archbishop is a woman, and the first woman to hold this position. Great job, England!

The architecture of this cathedral is stunning. Sometimes it’s hard to believe I’m allowed to walk around in a place so holy and reverent. And it really made me think a lot about my faith and how different religion is treated in England than in America. Of course, I’m just seeing the touristy parts of England, so maybe I’m naive and things are just as bad there as here, but it just feels like the church there is about loving people and helping people. With the rise of Christian Nationalism in the U.S., Christianity doesn’t look anything like that here, which is really sad.

After viewing the cathedral, we were given about an hour-ish to explore the town of Canterbury on our own. My mom and I poked around in a few gift shops where I bought a cute mug, some bookmarks, and some souvenirs for friends. Then, we found a pub for lunch where Mom ate a whole meal (yay!) What I found funny is that there was an NFL game playing in London at this time, but there were no TVs in this pub showing that game. Instead, it was all about the real football (aka soccer to us Americans).

Soon it was time to board the bus and head back to London! This was an excellent day trip and I really enjoyed myself. Plus, our tour guide was fantastic. She was personable and was great about giving us quiet time throughout the bus rides, so we could relax.

There’s not much else to say about this day! We got back to London around 6 p.m., got an Uber back to our hotel, and then relaxed for the rest of the night. Oh, except I was hungry and we decided to walk to the McDonald’s that was near our hotel. I wanted a McFlurry, some fries, and, for some reason, they had mozzarella sticks on their menu, so I had to get those, too. (A very healthy, well-balanced dinner, I know.) This McDonald’s didn’t have any seating—you would order from a kiosk and then wait for your number to be called. When we were there, we saw one woman steal a McFlurry from the drinks table, and then, when she was called out on it, she caused a ruckus. And then another man was being super rude to one of the workers, and McFlurry Stealer decided to yell at him, and then he started recording her as they were yelling at each other, and I was like, “Oh my god, am I going to be in some random viral video?” We got out of there before anything else crazy happened, but whew. I was not expecting that!

What a day! Castles, cliffs, cathedrals, and catfights – oh my!