The room didn’t seem to bad this morning when I got up. Karen still not very happy, she said the room was just growing on me like the mould above the window.
We sat exactly where we told to for breakfast and watched amused as others were being told off. There was another Basil Fawlty moment when someone who didn’t speak English was trying to order their hot food. I couldn’t quite hear all the conversation apart from the waitress repeatedly saying the word ‘cheese’ over and over and getting louder each time.
When our hot food was delivered, we were given exactly double the amount of food on our plates as the day before. No idea how what or why. Again, I thought it was quite reasonable.
After this and cleaning our teeth, we headed to Hever Castle which was about 30 miles away. This was our first visit and was chosen to make full use of our Historic Houses membership which runs out at the end of August. It is the ancestral home of Anne Boleyn and more recently the UK branch of the Astor family.
I liked it. It was more of a Manor House than a proper castle even though it looked like one with a proper drawbridge and everything.
The gardens were immaculate which was not surprising as I had never seen so many gardeners working in one place. We wandered around part of the formal gardens before heading to the café for a hot drink.
Then we wandered around the inside of the small castle. Karen did the audio tour but I was not that interested and made do (and it seemed learnt more) by reading the information boards. I liked the 2 downstairs rooms that were left as the Astors used them in the 1920’s. Many other rooms were just full of paintings that I would have just put in a skip.
I finished my tour first and waited for Karen on an outside bench. I took my rucksack off whilst I waited and then managed somehow didn’t pick it up again. Fortunately, when I realised some 1 ½ hours later it was still sitting there on the bench. Karen who has never been known to leave anything anywhere barely mentioned my mistake.
We walked back to the café to get some lunch. For 2 cups of tea, a scone and a sausage roll it cost me £17. It was all very but £17? I ate mine slowly to get the most out of it.
Sitting behind us also enjoying the sunshine were a couple who I thought were two retired actors from a Sit-Com from years ago, or at least I thought they were. Karen was not convinced and she is normally better at recognising people than me. I was fairly sure though. The couple who had aged but I could not remember names or what shows they had been in. It will come to me at some point.
Then we headed to the Yew Tree maze. I think Karen was most disappointed when I go us to the middle and out again with no wrong turns, by remembering to always taking the left turn each time.
From here we walked around the side of the lake to the Water Maze. This was ‘amazing’ and something I had never seen before. Consisting of many concrete slabs with reeds in-between. If you choose the wrong way, the slab you were on ‘tilted’ causing water to shoot up over you. It was very clever and very amusing. Karen didn’t fancy getting wet but I went for it. I had a couple of near misses with the water which created some fun for the people sitting watching. Bravo to whoever came up with this.
It was after this I realised that I was now without the rucksack and was relieved when I retrieved it.
We left feeling it had been a good place to visit especially as our Historic Houses membership had saved the £22 admission fee each (which they had clawed some back through the cost of lunch).
From here we drove the very short distance to Chartwell House. This was covered by our National Trust membership and so we saved the £20 entrance fee each plus £4 parking cost.
This was latterly Churchill’s home which he originally bought as wreck without telling his wife. It has been left as it was when he left and died in London. I thought it was fascinating as I could relate much more to it than unlived in stately homes from hundreds of years ago.
Many of the walls were adorned with paintings – which I liked as they of a time and hue as well as looking like what they were supposed to be of. His study was probably my favourite room along with a display of some of the awards he had been given.
The grounds were nicely laid out as he designed and it was a nice touch to have a replica chair at the spot where he used to feed the fish in his pond. I was pleased there was also a sign commemorating one of the walls he had built.
He was a fascinating man and his craftmanship of words and thought is astonishing. I can see why someone like Boris is ‘obsessed’ by him and wants to liken himself and his career to him. However, I do think that they should be mentioned in the same breath. The comparison with both their ‘wilderness’ years followed by a return is possibly worrying though.
We wandered to the Garden Cottage and had another cuppa where we sat for a while enjoying the view over the wealds of Kent before heading back to the car.
Our route back to Chatham took us onto the M25 where we were stuck in traffic for a while. Tonight’s, choice of Karen’s for dinner was Nando’s mainly chosen I think because it was in the next block to yet another M&S outlet. Sadly, or fortunately the outlet was closed and so we went straight into Nando’s where we were immediately seated. The food was very tasty and after devouring it we headed back to our room where we chilled for the remainder of the evening.
It had been another long but good day in what might just be the start of the British summertime. Only 3 more nights till the nights start drawing in for Christmas.
