Broken timeline - Part One

Chapter Seven - Anne Boleyn's Home

After breakfast, we all gathered our stuff and left for Hever. We were supposed to spend the night there so we took our suitcases with us. It was a short 10 minutes drive from Edenbridge and James was a fast driver. We got there in a blink of an eye.

Hever a village wasn't at all what I had expected. I had imagined it to be much bigger, however it was more like a village where people knew each other for years. Where they were organizing small community gatherings as well as all-town festivities that lasted days. 

We went directly to the castle, as we were expected by our pre-booked guided tour team. Our small group had gathered in front of the entry and after a few guidelines, we made our way through the gardens. Everything was breathtakingly beautiful, it was hard to believe that I was walking into the steps of Anne Boleyn. It was surreal that I was going to go into her former home and walk through her corridors and rooms. Kate and James were also speechless, it was their first time too and they, were gratefully appreciating the moment, listening to everything the guide was telling us whilst taking a few pictures.

As we grew closer to the castle, I started to see the walls and the windows. I was suddenly overwhelmed with mixed emotions and didn't know how to react. Anne Boleyn had been described as a manipulative but very intelligent woman, who knew how to make her way to the top, even if it meant stepping on a few toes on her way up.

To me she was a woman ahead of her time, for whom I had a lot of respect. She knew what she wanted and she was aware that being a woman back then was a huge disability. So she used the weapons at her disposal and made the most of it. Of course she evidently rose up too high and got killed for it. But she had earned the respect of many people across the world.

Being here made me feel a whole mix of emotions.
Happy for the reason that,  I had finally accomplished something on my bucket list.
Sad because it was her home and she had died on false accusations.
Excited because I couldn't wait to see what was inside and finally, afraid of what had happened last night.
I couldn't help but think about it and about the fact that it must be linked to this trip.

After a few minutes we finally entered the castle. The tour lasted 2 hours and it was breathtaking. We went through many rooms, witnessed a few scenes where actors were reenacting events that had happened within the castle and a few exhibitions that retraced her life and finally, we got to see Henry VIII's room. A lot of the rooms had been restored in the early 20th century, but you could still feel the Tudor vibe.

As we went through the castle courtyard to go the gardens, James asked me how I felt about everything.

"It's fascinating, I can't believe that I'm here. It's really impressive how they've managed to restore everything and keep a few bits of the castle so intact", I answered.

"Yeah I feel the same. All the walls and ceilings are so old yet so well preserved. I was in awe of everything. It's so incredible that at one moment I had to pinch myself to make sure that I was awake", he said enthusiastically.

Kate sighed and said, "Guys I know I'm not really about all this history stuff, but I have to admit, it's pretty crazy. I took some great pictures but seeing it for real is not the same. And the exhibition really got me into it !"

I was happy that we all had a great time. We then left our group and decided to visit the rest of the grounds on our own. It allowed us to take our time and really see everything there was to see. The gardens were beautiful, and the lake was so huge you could hardly see the end of it. We made a stop at the church and had a late lunch in the rose garden. It felt like a fairytale.

After a few ours exploring, James thought we should get our stuff the Bed & Breakfast were he had booked our rooms. When we got there we all had a separate bedroom since there wasn't any double rooms left. Shit.