Peckish Travels

Happy Groundhog Day if you’re a celebrator of this holiday and/or if your favorite animal prognosticator gave you the verdict you were hoping for in terms of length of winter. We don’t have any wild parties planned.

One of the Things To Do in Tunbridge Wells is to take a train ride on the short Spa Valley Railway. It runs from the old Tunbridge Wells West Train Station to the little town of Eridge, stopping at Groombridge and sometimes High Rocks. They offer both train rides on a steam train or historic diesel train (an out and back trip being about an hour if you don’t get off) as well as themed rides on the same trains for Burns Night or Valentines Day, etc.

We’ve been intrigued about these rides (me a bit more than Bob), but the trains currently only run on the weekends and the weather hasn’t been great. However, my recent research on Apple Maps showed me that one could walk to the High Rocks station (first one out of Tunbridge Wells) in about an hour from the house. Since this looked like the cutest stop, and the train doesn’t always stop there due to being a popular place for private events, I thought I might try walking there today.

No rain was in the forecast (but some fell anyway), and I headed out about 10:30 for a walk that would take me down to the busy road across from the Commons before heading west through a short neighborhood road before getting onto a path that took me all the way to High Rocks. It proved to be an inexpensive and close up way to experience the nature that the train would be passing, but it was not the easiest or cleanest of walks. Rain has consequences.

The Friezland Wood lies on the border of Kent and East Sussex. It is 8 hectares, has some impressive high sandstone rocks, and lies within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The High Weald National Landscape covers an area of 1,450 square kilometers and takes up part of Kent, Surrey, East Sussex, and West Sussex . The landscape has small farms and woodlands, historic parks, sunken lanes, and ridge top villages.

I may have missed some of the natural beauty while I was focused on my footing.

The following pics show some of the High Rocks that give the area that I was walking to its name.

Access to the train station was gated off as it lies just below the event venue.

Today I took the train to Tonbridge, a short 10 minute ride, to visit the Tonbridge Castle. Bob didn’t come with, as there a lot of uneven stairs in the castle and his right hip has been really bothering him.

The castle is conveniently located along the High Street in Tonbridge, a town that’s a good location for a fortified castle as it’s between London and seaports to the south. (Fun fact if AI can be trusted, Tonbridge was originally Tunbridge, but was forced to change its spelling in the 1870s to avoid confusion with Tunbridge Wells, which was faster growing due to its reputation as a spa town.)

The site of the castle was chosen for its views of the town and for its close proximity to the River Medway. It was originally a motte (mound) and bailey (courtyard) design — a fortified tower on a mound, surrounded by a timber wall surrounding a yard.

The old castle was gifted to Richard Fitzgilbert (later to be called de Clare) by William the Conqueror for coming with him from Normandy and fighting with him in the Battle of Hastings, the start of the Norman Conquest. The de Clare family owned the castle, in various iterations, for over 300 years. The castle was ultimately seized by Henry VIII in 1521 and bought by the town in 1897.

The tour cost 10 pound 50 (or 14.45 US dollars), and it included an audio guide for the self-guided tour. This being a slow season and a rainy day, I pretty much had the inside of the castle to myself, which was sometimes a little freaky.

Once I had purchased the ticket and received the audio guide, I went back out to the parking side of the gatehouse while the audio described the different features of the towers and archway. One of the features noted in the archway were the “murder holes,” square holes in the ceiling which guards inside could fire through to kill raiding armies. These will be seen later on.

I then used a fob provided with the audio set to gain entrance to the gatehouse, where I started the inside portion of the tour in the dark basement— by myself.

From here, I got to peek into a privy, where they had a guy sitting on the loo. Sorry, no photos of that. But then I got to climb all the way to the top and go out a door for some outside photos of the area. It was raining but still impressive.

After the tour, I popped into a couple of shops as I made my way back to the station. The train was on time in both directions. There was a fun mural in the Tunbridge Wells train station highlighting significant moments in their history.

One of the best parts of housesitting is being able to live like locals in all different parts of the world. Recently, that has meant finding a hairdresser and dealing with the same weather and transportation issues that everyone else is having to deal with.

On Tuesday, I had a much needed hair appointment with a local salon that had responded to my email inquiry and then provided the required patch test to make sure I wouldn’t react to the color solutions being used. It was a very wet day, so a good day to be inside and they even provided a proper tea set for me to enjoy while work was in progress.

Wednesday was to be a rain-free day, so we had purchased tickets on the Trainline app to go to Tonbridge (a 10 minute rail journey from Tunbridge Wells) to see the castle and whatever else we might find. Unfortunately, there was a break in a rail between Tunbridge Wells and Hastings (the other direction), but it caused all trains on the line to be cancelled, at least around the time we needed to go. So, maybe another day. Bob was able to get a refund through the app.

Thursday afternoons are house cleaner days at this house, so we leave about 3:00 pm and return about 6:00. Yesterday, we went back to the library downtown, which is co-located with the Amelia Museum, but this time, we explored the museum exhibits and learned a bit more about the local area. See below for a random set of fun facts about the local area.

The museum is named after Amelia Scott (1860-1952), a local activist, campaigner for women’s voting rights, humanitarian, and Tunbridge Wells Borough Councillor instrumental in the founding of the local library services.

The museum has thousands of pieces of local history, only about 1% of which are on display. One of the new things we learned about was the Tunbridge ware which began to be made by local artisans in the late 1600s.

The older retail section of town is called The Pantiles, named for the type of tiles that were used to pave the walk in the area. The name was derived from the wooden pans used to shape the tiles.

And Royal Tunbridge Wells acquired its Royal title due to the discovery of a chalybeate (iron-rich) spring on a local heath in 1606.

In 1901, the Tunbridge Wells municipal telephone service was launched. It was the first in England to be managed by a local authority, at least briefly. It was sold to the National Telephone Company in 1902.

Finally, there were quotes posted from various people of note. Here is one from the famed science fiction writer, HG Wells.

Last week after our library excursion, we walked back into our neighborhood to check out the local pub, The Bull. Yesterday, we just walked across the street to the local pub of the Wetherspoon’s chain, which is located in the former opera house.

The building has been a number of things since it’s heyday as an opera house, but Wetherspoon’s does clear away the tables and chairs once a year so that a full opera can be performed on site again. Some pics from inside.

Regulars to Wetherspoon’s likely go for the cheap prices, but since it was the first place we were taken by a homeowner for dinner (by a single woman from South Africa), they have a special place in our hearts especially when they are in historic properties.

To walk or not to walk when the temps are cool (feels like in the 30s F) and the air is quite damp? That was the question. The answer? Gotta walk, as there is rain in the forecast for the next seven days, so not likely to be better weather conditions.

We headed out to view the former home of an English novelist, which is now a Michelin recognized restaurant (listed in the Michelin guide but without a star). We’re toying with the idea of maybe eating there at some point, but we’re known to be a bit on the thrifty side, so you never know.

Heading towards the town center from the house, we walked through the small but cute Grove Park. It served as a vehicle base during World War II and many of the trees were planted following a great storm in 1987.

From the park, we entered the High Street for a bit and passed an old stone arch that leads onto a terrace.

We turned off the High Street to head west, away from the town center and towards the restaurant.

After walking a bit up hill, we got to the former home of William Makepeace Thackeray, now the restaurant Thackeray’s. William Makepeace Thackeray (1812-1863) was born in India but was sent to England after his father’s death in 1815. He is known particularly for his novel, “Vanity Fair,” which was a satirical take on British society.

Thackeray’s was also happily located near Mount Ephraim, which provides a bit of an overview of Royal Tunbridge Wells.

It has been a few days of wet and wind. We just gave into it on Wednesday and did a mostly in house day with the exception of getting Nellie out. We are not griping about the current UK weather though as our family in the Midwest is experiencing sub-freezing temperatures. We’ll take wet and windy with milder (feels like in the 30s and 40s F) temperatures!

The maid comes on Thursday about 3ish and works for 3 hours, as this is a large, 3-story house. Not wanting to be in her way, we have elected to be out of the house while she’s here. We walked into town to check out the library and found that it is co-housed with a museum, so more on that next week. Close to 5, we headed back into the neighborhood to The Bull, the closest pub to the house for a drink before heading back to the house for dinner.

Yesterday, we walked to Hall’s Bookstore that we had seen on our first walkabout on the High Street. They sold lots of used books sorted by topic and had a section with a term I hadn’t seen before — oldiana.

Today, it is still pretty windy, but the sun was shining, so we did a little longer walk. We have been wanting to walk through the Commons, which are across a busy road from The Pantiles, and we wanted to check out The Spa Hotel. Happily, Bob found a way to walk through part of the Commons to the hotel and even found us a public footpath to take from near the house all the way to The Pantiles.

The full name of the Commons is the Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall Commons, and it comprises 256 acres of land, with a number walking trails and two cricket grounds. It is a mixture of heathland and woodland with sandstone outcrops. While the Commons are managed by a nonprofit group, the land is currently privately owned and up for sale. There is an effort underway by the community to get the council (or other governmental group) to buy them to ensure they stay open for public use.

A couple more photos from our walk back on a different trail through the Commons.

After hearing today’s news from the States (more on Trump punishing countries for not supporting his desire for control of Greenland and inviting Putin to serve on the Board of Peace for Gaza) I was tempted to start this with an anti-Trump rant. Instead I just want to apologize for our country’s election of this madman and continue to hope that someone or all of us together can eventually (though sooner rather than later would be good) get him out of office and begin to restore a sense of sanity to the office and world at large. I’m not that hopeful at the moment.

But on with the doings of the day, which was a bit of a shorter walkabout to and through Calverley Grounds and then back into The Pantiles area for a quick errand before making our way back to the house.

To begin, Bob found us one of many neighborhood footpaths that headed us in the right direction. The path started in a park before moving onto a paved narrow lane between houses.

Our goal was to check out the Claverley Grounds which were recommended to us as an in-town place to visit by our homeowners. It is a park and gardens located just off of the High Street in the town center. It has a nice walking path along the outer perimeter as well as a cafe, toilets, a car park, a playground, and multiple sport facilities.

It was a cute park, but a quick visit. From there, we walked about 10 minutes to the Pantiles area for me to stop into a hair salon that I had contacted online. Since I am due for a haircut and root touch up, I needed to come in for a patch test. This is a thing in the UK where they put a bit of the color solution on your wrist to determine if you will have an allergic response to it. I have had to have this done before all of my UK hair appointments. This is not something that is done in the US, at least I have never had it requested, and I’ve had my hair done in a number of states at this point.

Anyhoo, appointment scheduled for no week, and no reaction to hair dye. Bob and I continued on, as he had two more sites he wanted to see. The first was a food hall in an old auction house building.

Bob also wanted to checkout the big Sainsbury’s grocery store while we were so close. We haven’t had to buy much in the way of food, as our homeowners stocked up for us. In going to the grocery store, we saw another repurposed old building.

After a quick shop, we headed back to the house and saw another repurposed important posting. Bob and I sucked in our stomachs, thought light, happy thoughts, and successfully made it across the bridge.

We were impressed with the signage but are hoping it is known to the NatSav, so that large trucks aren’t having to learn about the weak bridge at this point as it seemed like having to back up on either end would create havoc for the truck and any other traffic.

One of the sites recommended for us to check out in Royal Tunbridge Wells was The Pantiles, a Georgian area of the town center featuring boutiques, cafes, and galleries, in addition to an exhibit regarding the spa waters that earned the town its Royal designation.

We then walked back through the cute, small district to begin our perusal of the High Street. It was one of the longest and most vibrant High Streets that we’ve visited.

Bob and I arrived by train to Royal Tunbridge Wells yesterday afternoon a little after 2:00 pm. (Fun Fact: We went through the town of Tonbridge to get to Royal Tunbridge Wells.)

Our homeowner picked us up at the station. We had a great introduction to Nellie, our canine companion for this 31-day sit, and a thorough walkthrough of the lovely three floor home before the homeowners left at 5:00 pm for Heathrow airport to catch their flight to Rio. They will be spending a bit of time in Brazil before boarding a cruise around South America.

Royal Tunbridge Wells (also just called Tunbridge Wells) is a town of about 60,000 people in Kent, England. It is 30 miles southeast of central London. The town was a spa during the Restoration and a fashionable resort in the mid-1700s. It was granted the prefix “Royal” in 1909 by King Edward VII, acknowledging its long history as a spa town frequented by royalty, especially his mother Queen Victoria. It is one of only 4 towns in England with the title. We have not yet been required to curtsy or bow to anyone.

This morning, Bob and I took Nellie out for her first walk of the day on one of the routes suggested by the homeowners. It gave us our first real glimpse of our current neighborhood.

After we returned to the house, we decided to visit Dunorlan Park, as today was to reach a high of 50 degrees F and was partly sunny. It is likely to be the best weather we’ll have for awhile if not the whole visit.

Dunorlan Park is a 78 acre park about a 35 minute walk from the house. It has a 6 acre lake as well as a cafe, exercise and play equipment, and boats for hire in warmer weather. The park was being well used today by walkers, dog walkers, and families.

This afternoon, Bob and I did a shorter walk with Nellie through a nearby cemetery.

I’m happy to report that after the human crush trying to get to breakfast today, the hotel has opened up the stairs. They have also given 10,000 points to Bob for our account. Now, if they could fix the second coffee machine…

When we walked to the hotel on Wednesday, we noticed a sign for the Peter Layton Glass Gallery. Since I knew that Peter and Susan like glass blowing and have some beautiful pieces I wondered to Bob if maybe this was their London “supplier.” Bob was pretty skeptical, but just by chance I was right.

Based on Peter and Susan’s recommendation, we stopped by the gallery today, which has the London Glass Blowing Studio in the back. (Fun note: If you’ve ever watched the series “Blown Away,” Elliot Walmer, a glass blower from this gallery, won the second year of that series.)

We were there about 10:30 this morning when they were prepping for a glass blowing session a bit later. We were able to watch them blow some very small pieces with very long tails to incorporate into a matte glass landscape piece. Bruce Marks,one of the glass artists, was very nice to talk to us about the process and some of his work. He does glass making for Peter Layton, who is almost 90, during the week and for himself on the weekend.

Our stop continued our interest in this artistic method, as there are so many different styles.

From the Peter Layton Gallery, we walked to The Shard to get some great views of London. The Shard is a 72 story mixed-use development super tall pyramid-shaped skyscraper right across from the London Bridge transit station. It opened in February 2013. For a minimum of 19 pounds (US $25.43), you can access the public viewing decks on floors 68 and 69.

Since the clouds had cleared, we thought we needed to do it. The following are some pics from our visit. One of our favorite views was from the floor to ceiling glass in the bathrooms.

After The Shard, we decided to walk to the free Tate Museum via the Boroughs Market.

We walked through the free floors of the Tate Museum, but didn’t find much that spoke to us. We usually really like the buildings that house art museums, but we weren’t that fond of the building either. Just our tastes, I’m sure lots of people love the Tate and its exhibits.

There were two impressive exhibits in the main hall by Maret Anne Sara. The first one, Goavve, uses reindeer hides bound by electrical cables to contrast indigent and modern relationships with the land.

The second sculpture, Geabel, is a maze-like structure inspired by the shape of a reindeer’s nose. Fun fact, a reindeer’s nose is so energy efficient that it can heat air by 80 degrees C in a single second, enabling it to survive in very cold conditions.

We received our homeowner’s manual today for our next housesit, and we will have a 45 minute train ride tomorrow afternoon for our walk through with them before they head off for their trip.

After a 12 hour sleep Wednesday night, Bob and I got up with the alarm at 7:15 am yesterday (late for us) to get a bit of free breakfast at the hotel before catching a 1.5 hour train to Cambridge. The hotel is undergoing renovations and is down to one elevator and no use of stairs while repairs are underway there as well. While the staff have been very friendly, they are dealing with 5 floors of guests upset with the long wait to get to breakfast, leave the building, and/or get back up to their room. Titanium status Bob asked the front desk person to convey his unhappiness to the general manager. I doubt he was the only one.

Our train travel was a much happier experience with a smooth, uneventful journey in the rain. Peter and Susan, our Cambridge friends, met us at the station where we walked across the square to a popular coffee shop for a cuppa, as they say here, before the short walk onto their house.

We had a great visit catching up, and Peter made a lovely lunch. I am embarrassed to say, and I deeply regret, that I did not think to get a selfie of the 4 of us. I thought of it before we left for Cambridge, and then we just got busy talking.

I didn’t forget to get a couple photos of the two biggest male personalities yesterday though. The regal Hugo —

And Bob —

Since I predate the mobile phone era and don’t participate in much social media, I feel that the meet-up still counts even without the photographic evidence. It was a great day, and we left with ideas/advice for today in London, a much needed book to teach us about cricket, UK cheeses from a new cheese shop in nearby Ely, and a Christmas bread. All of that, and we were “run over” to the train station, so we arrived back in London safe and dry.

Cheers to our forever favorite Cambridgeans!