England Trip Day Seven–Journal
Today was hiking day. We ate brunch at Jerome’s and Janet’s (our baguettes) and hiked around the golf course to the Wheatsheaf pub in bough Beech. It was a beautiful day–bright and sunny. We stopped for J2O for KK, ale and beer for Jerome and me, and wine for Janet. Then more hiking to Chiddingstone where we saw the actual Chiding Stone, the little village where Perry Como had made a Christmas special, Virgin Mary Church (we could hear singers rehearsing for Maundy Thursday service). We had met a resident gentleman on the golf course who had lived in Nashville at one time and had a connection with Vanderbilt. We saw him again in Chiddingstone, and he told us about the area. We couldn’t go into Chiddingstone Castle because it is being renovated, but we did get a few pictures from the roadside.
Caitlan and Jerome went swinging on a tree swing that we found in a meadow. We also saw several bunkers built in the fields during World War II. We think that they were reached from underground. The openings in the sides were only big enought to shoot out of, but we figured that if Josh had been with us, he would have wriggled inside to get a souvenir of some sort.
We finally headed back to the Wheatsheaf and had a lovely dinner(hummus and pita, broiled goat cheese, pork tenderloin and guinea fowl breast which was really delicious) with wine and good conversation. We saw the bike couple from the train and Janet found out that at least the woman was from the Czech Republic. I think the Wheatsheaf was our favorite pub so far.
We had to hike back across the golf course in the dark which was a little scary, but the stars were out, and Jerome and I found Orion’s Belt and the Big Dipper. Then we got back to the hotel, watched HOUSE, said our Holy Thursday prayers and readings and called it a night. KK and I wanted to take long hot baths again but there was no hot water. So we watched CSI instead.