Deal and South East - Part 1

We left Chester on our way to Deal (which is down in the far south east corner of England, below London and more east) and stayed over night in Birmingham to break the journey where we had an enjoyable evening staying with Christine and I met up with 2 of my old venturer scouts from the 1960’s.

The trip down to Deal was quite good until we got just north of London where the motorway traffic slowed to a crawl. Because of the upcoming long weekend we had expected some delays so had allowed extra time luckily.

The apartment we are staying in is on the waterfront on the 3^rd floor over looking the bay and English Channel. On a very clear day you can see France. We have the place to ourselves as Andrew (the owner) is working overseas where he spends most of his time. View from our lounge room.

 So far we have visited Hastings, Folkston, Margate, Ramsgate, Rye, Eastbourne, Broadstairs, and the town of Battle which is where the “Battle of Hastings” took place, about 10 miles in from the coast.

Yesterday we went to a Medieval Festival at Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex. There were thousands of people there and as well as looking through the magnificent castle, we mixed with hundreds of people in period costume and saw many displays where people plied their trade as they would have hundreds of years ago. There were potters, wool dyers, wood carvers, armourers, traditional cooking, archers, soothsayers, dancers, sellers of Mead and other wines, period costumes for sale and many costume decorations including jewelry and armour. There were also arena displays typical of the jousting competitions of the period. The “king and queen” sat in the royal box watching the various events which included sword fights, cannon fire, horseback skills putting lances through rings and slicing carrots with swords. The highlight was of course the jousting with knights in shining armour charging at each other with lances. The whole event was very well done and luckily the weather was excellent. See below castle and jousting.

 Janice – the medieval festival was just like ‘A Knights Tale’ – they even had the same music at one point (We will rock you by Queen).  We didn't even cover all of it as it was spread over a huge area, but at least Brian got to see the jousting which is what he wanted to see. 

Hastings was lovely once we found the old part with quaint shops etc.  The other part was game arcades & things like that which is for holiday makers, but not for us.

This apartment is literally across the road from the sea, and the noise of the waves is so loud, that when speaking to my son yesterday on skype, I had to move in to the kitchen.  It’s beautiful & peaceful, and we really feel like we’re on holiday.  The sun pours in here, so we spend some time just reading in the lounge, listening to the waves. 

I wanted to go to Eastbourne because that is where my grandad went every summer (from London) so I had to see it for myself.  I was expecting something like Blackpool which is made up entirely of games arcades & fish & chip shops (awful), but it wasn't like that at all – beautiful beach front, and far more picturesque than I imagined.

I would like to go to Brighton but it’s a fairly long way, so we’ll see how we go.  The other part I would like to visit is Tunbridge Wells as it has lots of quaint villages & shops.

On Sunday we went (briefly) to Canterbury, but there was such a queue to get in to see the Cathedral, we decided we’d leave that until my cousin Angie is with us, and we’ll spend more time there.  It was a long weekend so the place was very crowded (in fact all places are very crowded).  On the way back we got lost and put the Satnav on and it took us up these little winding roads until we came to a little bridge and an Inn where we stopped to have lunch.  It is a 15^th century inn called George & The Dragon and we had a lovely meal.  You just never know what’s around the corner!!! Typical old English pub.