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Friday 17th February 2023
A more leisurely day today to end our tour of Kent. Callum said he REALLY didn’t want to see any more castles (!) but didn’t mind what else we did.
Our first choice, The Battle of Britain Museum was closed so we decided to head to Rye as we’d heard it was a very pretty town. We’d arrived and headed to the car parking in town … only to find that a van was parked right across the entrance. One lady was telling the driver to move so people could actually get in .. the driver turned around to her and told her to reverse in!! Given there was a sharp left turn as soon as you got in, that would be impossible. He did eventually move … and the car park was pretty much empty!
We had a wander around and plenty of choice of pubs, cafes and tea shops to choose where to eat. In the end we opted for The Standard. It was busy inside but we were able to get a table out the back. Jon and I both opted for the Catch of the day (pan fried Cod) with chowder and Callum went for a burger and fries. We had two hours on the car and it was taking a while for the food to arrive – however, everything was freshly prepared. It was worth the wait and the fish and chowder was deceptively filling. We made it back to the car with 6 minutes to spare!
After Rye, we headed back towards Hythe … but there didn’t seem to be too much there or any obvious parking so we continued on to Folkestone. We passed some stunning and huge houses – 5 or 6 storey town houses dating back to the 1800s. We dropped down to the harbour area and found a car park. We wandered over to the harbour and what a surprise.
The old railway station here had been converted into a communal area. The tracks had gone but the platforms and station buildings all remained. One area (The Goods Yard) was our sort of place for street food. Lots of choice including, Thai, Greek, Dutch, Middle Eastern … and ice cream. Plenty of seating and a large screen at one end. We continued walking down the harbour walls to the little lighthouse on the end.
I was surprised by how tidal this area was given that Dover is just down the coast. There was no water in the harbour and the fishing boats resting on the sludge at the bottom!. There’s a Antony Gormley statue under the pier you can reach via some steps. It would be covered when the tide comes in.
A shame I’d said only to put an hour on the car as you could have spent a little longer here exploring. This part of Folkestone was really lovely and considerable effort and money had been invested into the area to make it appeal to visitors.
From Folkestone, it was a short drive back to Sibton Park. Alas for Jon and Callum, someone else had discovered the the Snooker Room so they wouldn’t get their final game.
