A quick stop in the Garden County of England

We met up with Simon’s relatives for a final brunch at the Lamppost café before embarking on the long drive to Westerham in Kent, England’s Garden County. After a quick lunch stop in Banbury, we arrived at the Kings Arms pub with enough time for a quick afternoon walk.  We headed down an old alleyway onto the Common and up towards Hosey Hill with lovely views back towards Westerham.  There were plenty of paths to follow and we chose one that meandered through the woods and along followed Darent River before returning to the Common and back to the village. We detoured via the Village Green to admire the statue of Churchill before returning to the Hotel.

We settled into the pub with a bottle of wine and soon Helen and Fred arrived for dinner.  It has been 15 years since we had last caught up, so we definitely had a lot to talk about.

Tuesday 1 April.

On Helen’s advice we retraced some of our walk from yesterday, this time following the markers with Churchill’s silhouette towards his family home at Chartwell.  Churchill purchased the home in 1922 and lived there until his death.  We climbed the Mariners loop with its views over the house and emerged into the Chartwell farm with its fences lined with daffodils.  

As we had to head onto Poole, we decided just to view the house from afar and returned along the forest paths, now lined with budding bluebells back to Westerham for a coffee.  We drove an hour down the road and stopped at Farnham for lunch. I had stayed in Farnham on my first trip to England and was curious to see how much had changed.  We found a bustling town full of Italian restaurants, so we chose one with tables in the sun for lunch.

We arrived in Poole in the late afternoon, in time for a leisurely drink before a delicious dinner with Cath, Tim and Finn.

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