A quieter, gentler place

On Tuesday Michelle and I headed off for Sandwich, a small but very old town on the east coast. This is the home of my friend who owns the apartment in which we are staying. If you are interested in golf you will know that there is a large championship being played there right now which means a lot of people and a lot of cars crammed into a very small place. As I understand it, residents are able to rent out their homes to visiting Americans for large amounts of money if you can be bothered to put your prized possessions in storage, have your carpets cleaned and otherwise turn yourself into a pretzel to satisfy US demands. Our friends obviously decided it wasn't worth it which turned out to be to our benefit as we had a lovely couple of days with them.

It was a lovely break to leave the crowds of London and head off on the train into the English countryside. The slow train to Sandwich tours the county of Kent and we were happy to sit for two hours and just watch it all go by, British Transport Latte in hand!!! Our friends met us at the station and we were soon admiring their lovely large old home and the many wonderful plates and artwork that they have been collecting over the years. The weather was cooler and cloudier than in London but that didn't stop us touring the village and surroundings on foot and we enjoyed seeing the old village, small shops and old buildings.

Quaint Sandwich House 

Old Town Jail

In the evening we had dinner at home and my girlfriend and I spent the evening catching up on the last 50 years. We were very close friends as children but have only been together once since we were 15 years old so we had a lot of details to fill in. We both agreed that it felt very strange to know that we had once been so close and yet today, knew one another not at all.

An evening goes by very quickly but we managed to catch up on personal and work history and to put our respective childhood memories into perspective.

The next day we opted for going to a local castle rather than going to Canterbury Cathedral. Although Canterbury is an important place from the perspective of English history we were happy to be away from the crowds. We drove to Deal, another small town along the coast, where we had lunch and walked the sea wall for a bit before going to Walmer Castle.

Beach in Deal

Walmer Castle 

Lumpy Hedges, Walmer Castle Gardens 

Water Lilies, Walmer Castle 

 Small a place though it is, even there we ran into Japanese tourists. Of course there are a lot of castles in England but it was an interesting experience for Michelle to see her first real English castle. Sorry...Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria isn't a real castle!! Michelle will post photos. We toured the grounds too which had lovely flower gardens before heading home to sit in the sun room with French doors out onto a small walled garden, olive tree and all, and enjoy a lovely English cup of tea. Those who know me know that I rarely drink tea in Canada but over here I am enjoying my cups of tea which to me almost taste like a different beverage. Michelle has already bought several packets of tea to bring back. After tea at home we went out to a lovely old pub for dinner and of course while I'm in the UK I can't resist the roast lamb.

Friday was the day of the grand reunion but we started off having morning coffee with a 90 year old friend of my mothers. We sat out in her absolutely gorgeous garden, small but wonderfully organised and quite delightful, and enjoyed cake that she had made especially to remind me of my mother.

Looking down the back yard 

Collection of Potted Plants 

Path up the Garden

 After a couple of hours my friend who drives a London black cab picked us up and whisked us off to the reunion.

My mother had a circle of friends when I was a child and all their children grew up together until we went our separate ways to different high schools. Over the years we heard about one another through our families but a few years ago with only few of the mums still alive, we the "children" had our first reunion. This was the second time we all found ourselves in London at the same time. We met in the home of the one "mother" who is still alive and the 7 of us had a wonderful time reminiscing and looking at old photos while Michelle put faces to the names that she had heard much about. The food was great as was the wine and there was a lot of giggling and laughing. Great for the soul, a lovely afternoon!!!

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned people by name nor have we posted pictures of any of the people we have visited. This has been deliberate. For those of you referred to in this blog, we'll be sending out photos to you once we get home.

Well, we are on to our last weekend in London. We are hoping for another couple of days of sight seeing and a trip to visit my ageing aunt if she feels up to it but you'll have to log in again to find out what we manage to accomplish before we leave for Prague on Wednesday. Thanks again for the emails and words of encouragement.

A big "thank you" to my friend Donna who drove Roger to the doctor on Friday after he had some eye problems and Steven was in Vancouver. One big box of English tea coming your way Donna!!!

Sue