Last bank holiday weekend we hopped on the high speed train and headed down to East Kent to visit my grandparents. If you've been a longtime reader of this blog you will have heard me wax lyrical about Kent many times before - although I live in Essex I just feel more at home in Kent and am at my happiest when visiting, especially when the weather is kind! My years at uni in Canterbury were the best ever and I just hope I end up settling down there at some point in my life; it just feels like home.
So a standard Kent weekend goes something like this...
There is usually afternoon tea involved - this is at the Bluebird tea rooms in St Margarets at Cliffe. Perched on top of, well, a cliff, you get there using all manner of twisty windy roads and as this is the closest point to France your phone will normally change networks to SFR or the like. On a clear day you can see right across the channel and the views of the surrounding countryside are just beautiful, there were plenty of walkers around and it would be a fabulous place to take your dog. But we did not have a dog and we were hungry, so we headed indoors for tea.
It is a delightfully quaint little cafe with knick knacks and vintage-style signs everywhere. The decor even matched my handbag so I was truly chuffed! Their afternoon teas come with enormous scones and huge sandwiches - Jon and I shared a plate, although I didn't get to share his hot chocolate with marshmallows! Their prices are very good too so if you are in the vicinity (and possibly have a car - those windy cliffside roads might be tricky for pedestrians).
After tea we usually go somewhere picturesque to take photographs - it isn't hard, I think South East Kent has so many gorgeous little villages and the countryside is just beautiful! If we can walk along the sea we usually do - my grandparents live in Ramsgate so beaches are plentiful. After all that fresh air we then head back for dinner, usually fish and chips from the local - nothing tastes as good as fish and chips by the sea, in my opinion (although Canterbury's City Fish Bar does the BEST chips, I promise you).
Nothing really beats a Sunday morning waking up to sunshine and the sound of seagulls and crashing waves. This Sunday we had lunch at Whitstable Castle tea rooms as we were scouting it out as a possible wedding venue, then had an ice cream on the beach - a must-do if you're in Whitstable! This was so reminiscent of my student days that I felt rather nostalgic and sad, I do miss being only 20 minutes away from the beach. I didn't take any photographs for some reason, probably because I was so busy stuffing my face with a 99 Flake!
Just blissful - hopefully we will be going back again soon! How did you spend your bank holiday?
Love Dani
xoxo
That bag is the cutest thing ever.
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