Kent, England (Mar 24)

A weekend away in a country house at Sibton Park, Kent. This HPB location is tucked away in the countryside and ideally located to explore the many historic castles and villages of the area. We booked it a while ago in order to give Doreen, Emma’s mum, a change of scenery. She managed well over 7000 steps on the Saturday and a swim on Sunday, not bad for someone in her 90th year!

We arrived on Friday, checked into our apartment and settled down to some home cooked food and a few glasses of wine.

The weather leading up to the weekend was awful, so we didn’t set our sights too high, but as it happened conditions were lovely. Not great for any adventurous treks, as the ground was pretty much sodden, but we did have quite a lot of blue sky and little in the way of rain from the moment we arrived.

Hannah and I challenged each other to a game of snooker, and although the rules of the game needed to be explained on several occasions it transpired that she wasn’t too bad at this game.

Saturday, and with the sun shining, we headed off to a Walmer castle, one of the Cinque Ports, built to defend our country against those pesky French and any Vatican influenced attack back on the day.

It’s a small historic place where the Duke of Wellington saw out his final days. Doreen was a little underwhelmed by the architecture, as its more of a functional building than it is majestic, and Hannah was under impressed as “old” people were far too abundant.

But was a lovely way to spend a spring morning. I’m guessing I’m more interested in the history and must be one of those “old” people Hannah was huffing about!

I learned a little about the Cinque ports, their locations and purpose the last time we spent a bit of time exploring the area and when I met up with Russ, an old work colleague who lives nearby. Kent is a county that most people pass when travelling to France and beyond. I think they are missing out on something as it’s turning into one of my favourite English counties, a little like Somerset – vastly underrated.

Our favourite moment was on the Monday when we headed for Faversham Creek on a dog-leg of a journey home. Emma and I had visited a restaurant here a couple of years ago and wanted to go back.

We popped into the Sun Inn first and then onto Posillipo, an Italian restaurant on the edge of the creek with a lovely atmosphere and great food.