After spending so much time in South Africa, we finally managed to have a weekend away for our wedding anniversary (albeit a bit belated). Shane did all of the planning and we ended up jumping in the car and heading down to Rye, near the coast South of London. 
We arrived on the Friday night and stayed in an old inn. This place was an original shipping inn that had been there for hundreds of years and was a smuggler hangout back in the day! You could feel the history and it wouldnt have been out of place to see a pirate come waltzing through the door. One thing that we did pick up on quickly was how short people must have been... the ceilings were all incredibly low and the beams stuck out meaning Shane was only moments away from a concusion at any given time! Even at my height I was pretty close.... unreal I know!
The next morning we got up and wandered up the cobbled streets to the town cathedral and across to the fort. Rye used to be surrounded by water and at high tide it became its own little island, this made it quite defendable. As we wandered through the streets we came across the town crier... yep they had an old guy in full kit on a street corner making announcements in a husky voice with a large bell! It definitely added to the ambience.
We left Rye with a vision to hit some markets in Ashford... what a joke.... it was so crappy that we literally pulled in and pulled out again and started heading east to Whitstable. This is the home of the oyster apparently and the plan was to find a fish & chip shop and have oysters on the beach.... i would seem however that oysters are not standard FnC fare over here much to Shanes disappointment. We carried on through to Herne Bay for a wander along the beach before making our way back towards Maidstone for the night.
We had a pretty chilled out night and headed straight to Leeds Castle (funnily enough it is no where near Leeds) and spent a couple of hours wandering through the castle and around the grounds. This was a private home up until the 70's and is now in a trust. It was owned by 6 queens and a number of members of the aristocracy over the years. The absolute most impressive part for me was the library - it was literally floor to ceiling with old leather bound books that looked to be in mint condition. I could have easily curled up on the couch there and read through a few volumes!
We had to leave a bit early and get back to London though as I had packing to do and a plane to catch back to Jo'burg... am thinking of the airmiles!
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