Falling Into A Fairytale at Hever Castle

Welcome back Travel Bugs!

I apologize for being a few days late.  I’m sure you all have those crazy weekends as well.

Finishing up my trip to England, I want to tell you all about the castle I was able to visit. Hever Castle is located in Kent and was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry XIII. If you ever want to feel that you have fallen into a fairytale, you must visit this castle! When you first arrive, you get to walk through the magical gardens surrounding the castle. There are so many things to see, from the statues and fountains to the sculptured hedges and colorful foliage. The natural beauty is astounding, and pictures do not do it justice. As you make your way down the path, the castle comes into view with a small village behind it. The caretakers have done an excellent job preserving the castle and history of the castle. When you first enter for the tour, you start off with the history of the castle and of the Boleyns, especially Anne Boleyn's mark on British history. The historical artifacts and the original home interior have been very well preserved, and there is so much fascinating history to take in. Progressing through the castle, you can learn about the other owners of the castle and all the famous visitors that have come through, including Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II.

Outside of history, Hever Castle has many activities for its visitors.  My favorites include the yew maze and the water maze.  The water maze overlooks the lake and leads to a wishing well! Overall I really enjoyed visiting the castle and learning more about this history of Great Britain.  

This concludes my trip to England.  I hope you all had a great time joining in on all the fun!

I am very excited to start taking you all on more current adventures. I’m even more excited to tell you all, on this international dog day, that I will have a new travel companion joining me on some of my adventures! Meet Travel Puppie!

Travel Puppie will be joining me to show pup parents great places and activities they can do with their pups.  Our first adventure starts this weekend! Until then Travel Bugs.

TTFN, ta-ta for now!

Exploring the Magic of London

Welcome back Travel Bugs! 

I want to start off with a huge thank you to you all.  I now have over 50 followers on the Facebook page, and that is amazing! You all are fantastic!

We are looking back today on a few more of the days I was in England last year.  I was super fortunate to be able to explore London on my own one day and then met up with a friend from college the next.  I will say I got turned around on the tube but was able to find my way by following the Thames. 

There are so many great things to do and see in London.  During a study abroad trip I went on in college, I was able to see Big Ben, ride the London Eye, see the Changing of the Guards, and visit Harrods.  While that trip was great, I really wanted a slower pace this time around.  I really enjoyed walking around London and absorbing the culture.  I chose two places to stop on my first day, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum.  Both are free attractions but very well controlled, so the number of people inside was not overwhelming.  I had such a blast at the Natural History Museum!  All their exhibits were terrific, but I really enjoyed their dinosaur exhibit the most.  Not only did they have great information about the bones, but they also had really cool animatronics as well.  The Science Museum was a lot of fun.  The massive amount of information they have is crazy, but they present it all in such a unique way that it is so much fun to walk through.  My favorite exhibits were "The Clockmakers' Museum" on level 2, "Challenge of Materials" on level 1, and everything on level 0.  Both of the museums did take up my whole day, but it was so worthwhile and full-heartedly recommend visiting them.

The second day I met up with a friend from college, and she showed me around one of her favorite places in London.  We met up at Kings Cross, so the first stop had to be Platform 9¾! If you are a huge Harry Potter fan like me, the line to take your picture with the trolley is totally worth the wait.  However, a major hint it to get there as early as possible.  Our next stop was Camden Market, and man was it a blast! All of the food huts and the little knick-knack stores, the hustle and bustle, and the upbeat environment was so much fun to experience.  If you are looking for a great culture and people-watching experience, Camden Market is the place to go.  The stores are so unique and original that you feel drawn in to look at each of them. There are so many choices for food options, and none of them disappoint.  My personal favorite was dessert when we went to Chin Chin Labs, a Nitro Ice Cream store!  Now the ice cream was delicious, but the process of them making the ice cream was the best part, especially if you really liked science class in school. Last but certainly not least, as good Animal Science graduates, we visited the ZSL London Zoo.  The zoo is smaller than most I have visited, but that makes complete sense with it being in London.  While it was smaller, it was so well set up, and the exhibits were very impressive.  I really enjoyed getting to see all the animals, especially my favorite the giraffes. 

During my two days of exploring London, I had some wonderful experiences and made fantastic memories along the way.  I look forward to sharing my final two days in England with you all next week.  Until then!

TTFN, ta-ta for now!

Back and Ready for Adventures!

Guess who's back, back again… Buggie's back, TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

Hello, fellow travel bugs! I hope you all are having a wonderful summer. I am so excited to announce that I am officially done with school! This means I can get back to traveling and telling you all about it. My page is going to see some changes happen within the next year, and I am so excited to have you all along for the ride. For the next few posts, I will be reviewing the awesome trip I took myself on for my birthday last year. After that, we will start on more exciting things from this year. 

To start things off, let's dive into my trip back in 2018 to England! I had such a blast going and was able to stay with my amazing and sweet friend from Brighton. After taking it easy the day I came in, we spent the next two days visiting The National Stud and all things Brighton. 

For anyone who loves horses, The National Stud was such a fun tour. Located in Newmarket, England, The National Stud is one of several horse farms in the area. Not only did we get to learn more about the Stud and its history, but we also got to see stallions, mare, and foal. Now, who doesn't love seeing baby horses?  Newmarket itself, with a told town charm and winding roads, is absolutely enchanting. I really enjoyed how the town is set up to accommodate horses going to and from their stables and the Gallops. Such a unique place and so much fun to visit.

Going from the quaint town of Newmarket to the hustle and bustle of Brighton makes for an exciting change of pace. There is so much to see and do in Brighton that we definitely did not get it all in. Of the exciting things, we did get to see I really enjoyed Choccy Woccy Doodah where all the art is made from chocolate and the Royal Pavilion. The fascinating and fantastic sculptures made out of chocolate are definitely more fun to look at than eat, but I bet they don't taste bad either. The Royal Pavilion has a distinguished history and definitely worth the cost of the tour. Unfortunately, pictures are not allowed inside, but you could spend an entire day looking at the immense amount of detail in the art, tapestry, and wood carvings. 

I hope you enjoyed reading about my first few days in England. There are even more pictures to see on my Facebook and Instagram pages. You can always find me at TravelBuggie91 on all social media sites. Until next time everyone!

TTFN, ta-ta for now!