Bob & Betty go British

Go East

Today we picked up a hire car (a Ford Focus) and headed off on a very quick tour to the east of London. We managed to negotiate our way through the maze that is London roads and headed out on the A2. While slow it gave us a chance to be thankful we didn't rent a place in the South East.

We took in the sites of Rochester at lunch time. Rochester is home to a cathedral and a castle as well as a quaint village centre. We found an upmarket pub that served decent food with their free wireless internet access. We did a bit of research on Reculver over our smoked haddock risotto served on a piece of slate!

We continued east on the A2 through such places as Sittingbourne and Faversham until we found the sleepy little village of Reculver. This is a place that Mum and Dad have always wanted me to visit. Apparently the church we grew up at (St John's Parramatta) is modelled on the church in Reculver and has one of the stones in it's own towers. Apparently this is the site of the oldest Roman fort. The church was built on it and is considered a navigational aid to sailors heading down the Thames. Unfortunately the old towers crumbled and then new ones were built. Hence the two sets of towers in the pictures. There is also a very attractive caravan park...

After being blown away and being rained on (so much for fine and 30 - apparently that was Robert's fault - he had his weather widget set to London in the USA!) we headed down to the white cliffs of Dover. On the way we passed Sandwich which I assume is where the Earl of Sandwich is from but I could be wrong. We were suprised (not) to find that Dover has a castle as well as the white cliffs which were mostly grey today. The most surprising thing was the docks at Dover. I knew that there were ferries that left from Dover and went to Calais but I had no idea how big and loud the docks were. There were hundreds of trucks and cars and ferries all lined up to take people across the channel.

We headed back towards London taking the southern circular route this time. That was a bit quicker and gave us a chance to drive through our soon to be neighbourhood. While we don't live on the A road, we're pretty darn close to it. Oh well, it's close to shops and trains and buses so it's all good. I have to say the Wandsworth council building is rather impressive. I must remember to take a photo of it one day when I'm not driving through.

We've made contact with some of our friends in London so next week we'll be able to start catching up with them and increasing our social circle. Turns out most of them live south of the river like we will.

Don't forget to check out more photos from our trip today on flickr.

posted by Elisabeth @ 10:03 PM