Thursday, December 30, 2010
10:29pm
Wye, England
We left London early this morning and picked up a rental car to continue the next phase of our tour of England. We negotiated the traffic out of London and got on our way towards Chatham, where my brother was born. We passed by the hospital where Robert was born and then drove by our old house on Chesham Drive in Rainham. From there we continued on to Canterbury. The traffic was horrid, but we eventually found a parking space in a lot and made our way to the High Street for some lunch. We then went to look around Canterbury Cathedral, which like most historic sites, now comes with a price tag to walk around, so we just walked along the outside bits and the grounds where we could. Definitely got a fair amount of good pictures too. We then wandered around the winding, cobbled streets of Canterbury a little more (Oh! I should mention that this is the hometown of Orlando Bloom… Though I didn’t have any run-ins with him unfortunately…) before heading back to the car and getting back on the road. The countryside of England is really quite refreshing. It’s a welcome break from the city, and a reprieve from the claustrophobia and grayness of the urban settings I’ve become accustomed to. There is so much green around here, with rolling, cloud covered hills and cattle and sheep and horses in abundance. The towns and villages we drove by today are so quiet and peaceful. I could certainly use a little nirvana like this at least twice a month back home. As the light faded on us, we arrived in Wye, our resting stop for the night. I’m writing to you from The New Flying Horse Inn, an absolutely fabulous little place and an old haunt of my mum’s, which actually only has six rooms! My mum used to work in hop research every summer during her school years here in the UK. She commuted to Wye everyday from her house in Ashford to “get her hop on”, so the pubs around here are definitely old stomping grounds for her. After we freshened up in our rooms for a little bit, we headed out to The Tickled Trout, a pub / restaurant a short walk away from The New Flying Horse, for a pre-dinner drink (a ginger wine with lemonade for me). On the way back we passed a church with a beautiful graveyard outside. The dim lighting and mist made for quite a mysterious and magical scene. I realize that I actually really love graveyards, as odd as it sounds. They are so peaceful, and so filled with the histories and stories of so many lives and people. There’s something in that that I have yet to be able to put into words…We got dinner back here in The New Flying Horse – I got good old British fish-and-chips… YUM! Plus a Pim’s with lemonade to drink, all followed up with a really delicious Irish coffee for “dessert”. The atmosphere of this place is really lovely, and something that you can’t find in the States. And no matter how hard the US tries, there is no way to replicate a good British pub. The aura, vibe, company, atmosphere, décor, and energy of this place are one of a kind. Like I’ve said too many times before… I can get used to this.
Onward to Southampton tomorrow.
Phillipa
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