How to go
<train>It takes about one hour and ten minutes from Victoria station to Oxted.
At Oxted, you should change trains to Edenbridge Town. After Arriving at
Edenbridge Town, you should take a taxi. After a ten minute ride, you'll
arrive at Hever Castle.
<In my case>At first, we got on a train at Victoria station to Oxted. At Oxted, we
took a taxi for twenty minutes.
On my seventh trip, I planed to visit Hever Castle in a pamphlet that I
obtained at the British Tourist Authority in Japan. The pamphlet said,
"It's about 5 km from Edenbridge station. It takes about ten minutes
by taxi. You can't find any taxi at Hever, the nearest station. From Hever,
it is about twenty-five minutes walk to get there, but the route is complicated."
If I use a train, I should use a taxi from Edenbridge station. Therefore,
I decided to use a half-day bus package tour organized by Frames Richards
because I traveled alone.
However...It was summer, the best tourist season, so the bus driver was
a temporary worker, an old man. We got out from London, but even after
two or three hours, we couldn't arrive at Hever Castle. I saw a sign for,
"Canterbury" outside.
That day, we finally drove back to London without seeing the castle! We received the tour fee back.
Since then, although I had still wanted to visit, I didn't have a chance.
When I decided to travel to England for the thirteen time, I decided to
see the beautiful castle.
At first, I thought that I would use the same package tour again, but I
checked through the internet, I couldn't find any bus package tour to Hever
Castle. When I asked Osuo, one of my HP visitors and an expert in traveling,
how he went to Hever Castle, he said that he had rented a car. I can't
drive, so it meant that I had to use a train and taxi. I don't want to
use a taxi if I travel alone. However, Tsukasa, who was travelling with,
said that she would be happy to join me. Wow!
On the Sunday morning which we had planed to go to Spencer House, I said that I wanted to visit Hever Caslte too. Tsukasa answered, "Hever Castle seems to be a little far, so I think that we should visit another day." I said, "I think that it isn't so far. Probably, we can arrive there in two hours."The day was very fine, so I really wanted to go.
Thus, we caught the 13:38 train at Victoria station for Oxted, the transfer
station for Edenbridge Town. After I got on the train, while eating some
bread, for confirmation, I checked again the access to the castle in "GIO
GLOBE TROTTER"*. It said that we should get off the train at Edenbridge Town. "Edenbridge
Town?" I had a bad hunch. Then, I took out the British Tourist Authority's
pamphlet from my bag. It said that the castle was about 5 km from Edenbridge.
When I checked the train map which I had obtained at the tourist information
centre in Victoria station, I found out that there was both Edenbridge
and Edenbridge Town. We bought tickets to Edenbridge, but now we were going
to Oxted, the transfer station, according to "GIO GLOBE TROTTER",
so we were going to Edenbridge Town. Maybe, the nearest station was Edenbridge
Town. Therefore, our destination was correct, but our tickets were not.
We began to worry if we would be asked to pay an extra charge. However,
if we are lucky, we wouldn't be asked. "Let things take their course."
We decided to wait and see what would happen.
Finally, we arrived at Oxted station.
When we were looking for the platform to Edenbridge Town, a station employee
passed by. We asked, "Which is the platform for Edenbridge Town?"
He answered, "On Sunday, there isn't any train to Edenbridge Town."
"But we have tickets. We bought them today!" He checked our thickets
and said that they were the tickets to Edenbridge Town. That moment, I
remembered. Yes! The tickets we had bought were the ones to Edenbridge.
We asked him if we could go to Hever Castle from here by taxi. His answer
was that it was very far. "So, what should we do to get there?"
"You should go back to East Croydon." Really?! We got lost!
Anyway, we thought we had to go back towards London, so we got on a train.
Tsukasa said, "Today, we should give up vsiting the castle."
I thought so too. "If we go back to East Cryodon, we wouldn't have
enough time to go there. It means that we lost three or four hours today."
I felt sorry for Tsukasa. "If we don't go today, I should probably
give up visiting during this trip.", I thought.
However, the train hadn't left Oxted after ten minutes. When we asked what
time the train would leave, they said it was 15:09. We had to wait for
more than fifteen minutes.
I wasn't sure, but I said, "I think it isn't so far to Hever Castle, because Edenbridge Town is only the second stop according to this map. Therefore, maybe we can get there from here by taxi." We went out of the station to ask a taxi driver.
But, there wasn't a taxi in front of the station. "Um... Should we
give up?" We went to the other exit to look for a taxi. However, the
exit was even more deserted and there wasn't a taxi.
We went back to the first exit. Then, we found a taxi which hadn't been
there a few minutes before. Wow!
We asked, "Excuse us. If we go to Heaver Castle from here, How long
it will take?" He answered, "About twenty minutes, I think"
So, the taxi fee shouldn't be be so expensive. "How much it is? "
"Eighteen pounds" Yes, I got it! If we can arrive there in twenty
minutes, it is better than waiting for the train to leave.
The route to Hever Castle was very complicated. Seeing how the taxi was
driving, I understood that it was difficult to walk around here unless
you know the way. "As I had expected, we needed a car to get to Hever
Castle. " "We are very lucky because we found a taxi when we
went back to the exit. No taxi had been there a few minutes ago."
Thus, I finally arrived at Heaver Castle on my second try. Whew!
* "GIO GLOBE TROTTER" is a series of Japanese books which talks
about travelling in each country all over the wolrd. There is a lot of
valuable information which is written by many of it's readers.
That day, there was a clear blue sky! I was extremely happy to see the
castle on such a nice day because it had been difficult to get there.
Hever Castle is in Kent. Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I's mother, spent her childhood.
In about 1270, the oldest part of the castle was built. In about 1500,
the Bullen family added a Tudor dwelling house. Then, in 1903, William
Waldorf Ascot, an American billionaire, had the castle restored and the
Tudor Village built, then gardens and a lake were created.
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The caslte was smaller than I had expected, but its grounds were huge! We looked at the inside and walked around the gardens. The gardens were well-kept. They were very beautiful! After seeing them, we dropped in the goods shop. It was already just before five o'clock in the evening.
When we went out of the gate, we couldn't find a taxi. We had to call for
one, but there wasn't any telephone box either. We asked the gate keeper
how we could call a taxi. He said, "I'll try."
After about twenty minutes, a taxi arrived with a sign "Relyon",
as the gate keeper had said, finally came in front of the church next to
the castle. We were relieved.
We had tickets from Edenbridge, so we should go to Edenbridge station.
However, Edenbridge station is along a local line, so it maybe closed on
Sunday same as Edenbridge Town station. We thought we should go back to
where we had come from--Oxted.
We arrived at Oxted at 17:40.
However, a sign said that there wasn't any train to London until after
nine o'clock at night because of a strike or something. "Can that
be true? Does it means that we can't go back to our host house until midnight?"
I was almost overwhelmed. We wanted to ask a station employee, but we couldn't
find one. Then, we heard an announcement, "The train to London is
now leaving at platform 1." We rushed into the train.
However, there weren't any people except us and the train didn't move.
Mmm...
We should check what time the train leaves and if the train is really going
to London, but we were worried what if the train moves soon after we get
off?
We thought that the train would never move if we kept a door open, so we
opened a door and chekced the departure time. We found a sign at the platform
saying that the departure time was 18:10.
The train didn't move at 18:10. I wondered what happened. After a while,
many people got on the train and then it finally left the station. The
train couldn't move because the connecting service bus hadn't arrived.
Before that, I had sometimes heard that we couldn't count on trains in
England. However, aparting from a Rail Strike, for me, it was the first
time to experience troubles related to trains.
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the gardens in Hever Castle. the middle : the water maze in the gardens.
Actually, we were supposed to go to a pub for dinner with Mr. and Mrs.
Meves, our host family, but we came back after eight o'clock at night.
Sorry, we broke our promise!
However, I heard from Tsukasa they had said, "When you said that you're
going to Hever Castle today, we thought you couldn't get back early."
You anticipated was correctly. I have to take off my hat to you!
(2004.1.1)
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