Passage to our room at The Royal Oak led us by (well not exactly by, more like, within shouting distance of) the hotel’s bar so, of course, we had to stop for a post prandial drink; both the drink and the bar were pleasant but not exceptional – the young man behind the bar though [...]

We set off for Sevenoaks late in the day, confident that it would be easy to find both Seven Oaks and a room for the night; we were wrong on both counts.

Even after several trips to the UK, I am stymied by British road maps so I was not only no help in finding Sevenoaks, I added to the problem. We pulled into the city after dark and set about looking for lodging and after a couple of circuits of the city landed at The Royal Oak Hotel.

England is chock full of castles and palaces and cathedrals, all of them glorious in some way or another. Many of them remind me of that quote from the movie version of Dr. Zhivago which goes somewhat along the lines of, “twelve families could live in this home.” Well, I’ve visited Blenheim Palace and now [...]

Folkestone…not really sure how we got there and not really sure why I would go again but I would. It reminded me of some of the small, dying, boarded up towns in middle America that – for me – have allure but many inhabitants (particularly teenagers) would love to escape. There was nary a person [...]

I don’t think I will ever get used to the history that exists so naturally and so matter of factly throughout England. You’re just walking down a narrow cobble street and there it is… the gate to Canterbury Cathedral – with big orange bags of laundry or some such in front of it – blessed [...]

I have yet to find a town in England that wasn’t worth a wander but Canterbury, ah, Canterbury – not a dollar is needed to meander its streets day or night and find structures and snippets of interest everywhere. The meandering started after our return to Canterbury following the surprisingly delightful bat & trap competition. [...]

We had to scurry to make it to from The Shipwrights Arms in Oare to the semi-final for the Canterbury Bat & Trap League. I’d never seen a bat & trap game before and – to be honest – it was more as a curiosity than with any real interest that we had made plans [...]

Despite what the listing on the Campaign for Real Ale website says, The Shipwrights Arms is not readily visible from the road (unless the writer means the meandering single lane road that leads to the Arms but first you have to find that road). However, it was well worth the several false starts that led [...]

With beer filled bellies we meandered through the Faversham Hop Festival for another hour. The crowds had a friendly feel and several times we ran into a Dutch couple we had met while parking our car. In the spirit of the day, we soon found ourselves wearing crowns made of hops. Although we never spied [...]