Back to Kent & Sussex...

After nearly 4 weeks in England's West country, this week brought us back to the South East of London. Along the way, we had a brief but really nice visit with one of Norma's friends from back in Riverside who has lived the past 30+ years in the UK. Afterwards, we dropped our rental car off at one vender, and picked up a new one at another to last the remainder of our time; ...enabling us to avoid the 30 day collision damage insurance limits on our credit card coverage :-)

Our latest VRBO rental is in Broadoak, just north of the coastal village of Rye. This place is a classic "granny flat" conversion of the second story of their old barn- nice & cosy with lots of room!  

As with all our UK travels, we're getting out pretty much every day to visit some great gardens or wander local market towns & villages.  This week's highlight was a visit to Gravetye Manor, the former home & garden of late 19th century garden designer William Robinson, one of my biggest influences.  The manor is currently being operated as a luxury hotel, with a Michelin starred restaurant... and the only way to access the garden, is to spend a night in the hotel (starting at approximately $900/night!), or dining at the restaurant.  Seeing as our week's rate at our VRBO was (substantially!) less than one night, we opted to have lunch to get our opportunity to see the garden.  While not cheap, their prix fixe lunch was no more than a nice restaurant at home in NYC or DC.  We came in with pretty low expectations, given that we've never been to a restaurant that had actually earned a Michelin star, and while I'd read that the garden had been meticulously restored to Robinson's original plan over the past 30;years, you never really know until you get there! When did, we were absolutely blown away! The garden was magnificent, with wonderful layering of naturalized spring bulbs, perennials, and trees and shrubs.

And the food was even more of a delightful surprise-- including a rubarb souffle for dessert that had Norma swooning :-)

Other gardens this past week have included a second visit to Sissinghurst, the Great Dixter, Hole Park, and tomorrow we're off to Hever Castle, childhood home to Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII's #2 wife), as well William Waldorf Astor, the American millionaire who spent millions creating the current iteration of the house & extensive gardens. Our most notable village explorations included Rye (with cider at England's oldest pub:-), and Hastings on the coast. Rye in particular was very cool!  Here's a quick collection of pictures that capture some of the last week's adventures ;-)

Thats all for now...

Cheer!