The Wanderer Returns

I'm back!

I took an absolutely ridiculous amount of photos whilst I was away but I don't want to bombard you with too many of them cos, well, I don't want to be the boring "look at my eleventymillion holiday snaps!" girl. But having said that, we did go to lots of lovely places and they deserve to be shown off a bit, so please prepare yourself for at least three million photos.

There are none of the cottage because it was a bit 80's-tastic inside. Not really a problem though as we were out doing things most of the time. And at least the outside was colourful.

I muchly coveted the cat shutters on the cottage down the road though.

So, last Sunday we went to the Shell Grotto in Margate. Such a brilliantly English little place! It's tucked away down a tiny side street and you wouldn't even know it was there, but once you're inside it's the most fascinating thing. They have no idea how old it is or who made it but there are over 4 million shells decorating the walls and it's amazingly intricate. My photos mostly suck though. Gargh.

And then to Richborough Roman Fort, the old gateway to England for Roman troops.

Monday was for frolicking at the seaside.

Tuesday was a good old National Trust day out. We managed to cram in three places - Bodiam Castle, Batemans (Rudyard Kipling's home) and Sissinghurst. All absolutely wonderful.

Mowgli topiary, I think.

As if to further prove that I am an Old Woman, I was quite excited to meet Aled Jones at Sissinghurst. He was doing some filming for Songs of Praise and we got roped in to be background extras. If you want to see if you can spot me on the telly then apparently it's on on 15th May.

Wednesday we went to Sandwich which was LOVELY. I don't appear to have taken any decent photos of buildings though, just lots of the wonderfully named roads they have there. And our afternoon tea, obviously.

Thursday was Canterbury which is also v. nice. I forgot my camera though, d'oh! The only photographic representation of the day is the board game (Touring England) we played that evening.

Friday was our day out at Dover Castle which was also utterly brilliant. The main castle is one of the best I think I've ever been to and I love all the new Henry II interpretation, but there's tons else to see and do there, including some fascinating wartime emergency hospital tunnels. Also, a nice American man came up to me and rather randomly announced "cute SHIRT!" Why don't English men say such things?

The colours have turned out a bit bizarre in this one. I was pretending to be a tomb decoration in the shadow cast by some stained glass, as you do...

White Cliffs and the ferry terminal.

Then on Saturday we came home via Ightham Mote which is very, very beautiful.

That's the only Grade 1 Listed dog kennel in England, don't you know?

T'was a glorious holiday. We were super lucky with the weather as well - only one day with a little bit of rain and most days were gorgeously sunny.

Would it bore you all if I did some separate posts about the National Trust places? I really did take a lot of photos of them, but I'm aware not everyone is as much of a history nerd as I am...