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| The Fiat Panda |
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| Pooh Corner |
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The White Cliffs of Dover |
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| The town of Rye on the River Brede |
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| One of the many beautiful buildings in the area. |
Yay! Another weekend away. We set off early Saturday morning with an overnight bag out to Heathrow Airport where we had booked a rental car. The plan was to head off to the south east area below London and just explore. I knew that there were a few places that I wanted to visit but otherwise not many plans were made. We picked up the Fiat Panda and set off. First destination was Ashdown Forest in East Sussex. This and the nearby village of Hartfield is where AA Milne and his family lived and where the Winnie the Pooh stories were created. So off we set and found the pretty little village that has a Winnie the Pooh fan club base with of course lots of momentos that fans can buy. (Of course I bought some things!!) We had tea and scones in the pretty garden and then set off to find the bridge where Poohsticks was played. It is a pretty wood and although I could not find the tree that had "Saunders" on it, Rod and I did managed to play poohsticks (I won but Rod doesn't agree). After our game and the appropriate photos, we headed off again and aimed for Dover. This was on the coast and the Limestone cliffs have been made famous by Vera Lynns "Bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover".
It is a lovely seaside town and first stop was Folkstone where we wandered beside the shelly beach and bought "Cod and Chips". They were oily but very nice. It seems that every seaside town must have a fairground with rides and games to take everyone's money. Folkstone is quite an old town and has one of the oldest water balance cliff lifts in England. We then went to the next town of Dover where the ferries leave for France on a regular basis. The cliffs certainly are impressive and very white. It is a heritage area so well protected. Fabulous views and we could actually see France off in the distance. From there we travelled down to Hastings which is a very ordinary looking town on the coast. We continued around country roads and just enjoyed being away from the city. Around teatime we dicided to find a B&B to spend the night. We had been going past them all day long but do you think we could find one once we started looking. Eventually we made our way into Ashford where we finally found a bed for the night. Up bright and early next day to head on to start to meander our way back to London. We went to Bodiam castle in Robertsbridge. This castle was built in 1385, by Sir Edward Dallyngriggeo as a showing of his strength and power. It was not a large castle but was in pretty good shape considering it's age. Was very pretty with the moat surrounding it.
From there we went on to Rye which is a beautiful old town with a canal and locks managing it. Many beautiful old buildings and original cobbled streets make up many of the towns in this area. Lots of history . As we were heading along, we came across an observatory and discovery centre so headed in and ended up spending a couple of hours with the different activities there. A fun afternoon. We then had to programme Navman to take us back to Heathrow to return the car. Little did we realise that it took us through London and I ended up trying to negotiate my way through the horrible traffic and streets back to the rental car place. We finally made it back in one piece and then had to catch the train back towards Stratford. It is over an hour on the tube and at the next stop an american couple got on and asked us directions. Anyway, we got talking and they were on holiday here and we ended up having a good yak and exchanging email addresses. We finally dragged our weary souls home. Another wonderful adventure.
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| Playing Poohsticks |
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