magical arundel

i’m still feeling this sort of after-the-fact excitement about the fact that catherine came all the way across a continent and an ocean to visit me. and some quick-onset nostalgia for the great time we had with our babies.

one thing cath wanted to experience while she was in england was the glorious charming english countryside! i did some research on castle towns that are easily accessible via train from london and stumbled across a place called arundel. it sounded pretty amazing but since i’d never been there i wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. we decided to go check it out together and i hoped so much that it would fit the bill for the type of classic old english stuff cath was looking for.

and it sure did!

arundel is totally magical. (yes, i think it’s where disney got the name for the enchanted city in frozen.) it’s a totally charming village nestled into the green countryside with a legit castle. it was super easy to get there – a 1.5 hour train ride from victoria station with gorgeous scenery – and the town, castle and gardens were just perfect. we had such a fun day there!

 
^^ walking from the train station to the town centre, and then through the darling streets! ^^
 
^^ a classic built-into-the-hundreds-of-years-old-wall post box, and a fourteenth century church! ^^
 
^^ …and inside the gothic cathedral …and outside the gothic cathedral ^^
 
after checking out the town and the church and cathedral (and a pizza lunch), we headed for the castle! ^^
 
^^ which was peppered with gorgeous tulips. ^^
 
^^ we went straight up to the top of the castle keep, which was built in 1067! the sweeping views were pretty top notch. ^^
 
after touring the beautiful, lavish castle rooms (the library was to die for – but we couldn’t take photos inside!), we popped in the castle church ^^ …
 
^^ … and then went on to the gardens! ^^
  
^^ the greenhouses were built during the reign of queen victoria. the gardens backgrounded by the cathedral are just stunning. ^^
  

it was a lovely day in arundel! always an adventure with two babies along for the ride, but we all four had a really great time (minus the couple of bouts of fussiness). i love england so much. and catherine and andrew!