We had a beautiful long weekend in the sunny garden of England - Kent during May. We started the road trip by stopping in Canterbury to see the famous cathedral.
It was magnificent as expected and we even enjoyed an Evensong service. It just happened to be an open gardens weekend around the country and some of the gardens of the deacons and Archbishop on the cathedral grounds were open to visitors.
We met a very nice man who was married to the archdeacon of the cathedral and he gave us a lovely tour of their ancient garden complete with a relief carving honoring Thomas Beckett from hundreds of years ago.
We stayed that night at a lovely little Airbnb cottage, but it turned out to be a bit sweltering with lots of sky lights and sunshine. We managed with the windows open and fans blowing to make it through the night without too much complaining.
The next day we visited Dover castle and they just so happened to be having a big WWII festival complete with reenactors, pyrotechnics and a mock battle! The kids really loved the whole thing, especially Callum and the ambush where the Brits saved the Americans from the Germans!
The castle keep in the center of the complex was of Norman origin and closely resembled the Tower of London which was built in a similar style by the Normans.
All over the grounds were fun activities like planting a victory garden or learning about rationing during the war.
It was fascinating to learn the history of this ancient site that had witnessed so much history. The remains of the Roman lighthouse that had sat over the harbor for a couple thousand years. On the next hill over sat the last surviving original radar antennas first deployed in WWII to warn of German bombers approaching. They made the difference in allowing fighters to scramble and engage some of the bombers before they hit their targets and ultimately helped turn the tide of the Battle of Britain.
Our final day we dropped into the ruined Abbey of Battle, near Hastings, where the famous Battle of 1066 was fought when William of Normandy invaded and defeated King Harold and forever changed the history of Britain. There was a hilarious children's guide with English Heritage who took kids with a group of about 6 other children on a wild beast hunt (bugs). He made jokes and poked fun at the kids the entire hour which made it quite a bit more entertaining for the adults!
Afterwards, we droved down to the pebbly coast and chunked rocks into the sea for a while.
We then decided to hike along the famous white chalk cliffs and enjoy the quintessential English Channel views. We were able to spy the 'Seven Sisters' row of undulating white cliffs in the distance at the end of our windy and green walk.
We stopped into a golf club along the coast for a nice dinner all to ourselves before cruising back home that night. It was a lovely trip with so much history.
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