{"id":35009,"date":"2023-10-05T05:49:58","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T18:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=35009"},"modified":"2023-10-05T05:50:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T18:50:01","slug":"back-in-blighty-england-%f0%9f%8f%b4%f3%a0%81%a7%f3%a0%81%a2%f3%a0%81%a5%f3%a0%81%ae%f3%a0%81%a7%f3%a0%81%bf-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=35009","title":{"rendered":"Back in Blighty, England \ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc65\udb40\udc6e\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc7f 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date: 2nd October 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travelled: 0 kms from Watten to Cranbrook \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visited: Canterbury and Cranbrook \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stayed: John and Linda\u2019s, free, N00.0000, E0.00000\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budget: 131 days @ \u20ac96 per day<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bit of an update and a fast forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spend our last evening in France at one of our usual haunts, the aire at Watten. Standing just off the Fleuve Canal it has a lovely aspect. Apart from being a free stop-over the village has a lovely little tabac and our last chance for a Leffe and a ros\u00e9 for less than \u20ac5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s a very early start next morning and a 45 minute drive to Calais and the chunnel. It\u2019s still dark and just starting to drizzle when we roll up to the French border checkpoint. After a couple of minutes whilst the young officer counts months and days on her fingers, she informs us what we already know, we have overstayed our 90 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once we explain we are not English but the grand children of the valiant diggers that saved France from the evil Bosch and having sauerkraut instead of croissants for breakfast. She promptly apologises and bid us a bon voyage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thirty five minutes later we roll off the train in Folkestone. We reset the GPS for the aire\/park and ride at Canterbury another of our usual stopovers. Not free but \u00a34 is as close to free as England gets. The bus from the P+R to the city is free so we give that a flogging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We have wandered Canterbury during previous visits, the old town within the city walls is very popular. Particularly as Friday is Goth day, every second person was wearing Doc Martins, fish nets stockings and something their parents wouldn\u2019t have approved. Studded nose, cheeks, lips and tattoos of something from JR Tolkien seemed popular this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a second retail therapy visit to Canterbury next morning we point the Hymer south into Kent to visit our long standing friends John and Linda. We met many years ago in Malta of all places and make a habit of catching up as we return from Europe each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John and Linda live on the outskirts of Cranbrook, so other than going to the pub for dinner we do some walks and take in the village sights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Union Windmill circa 1814, apparently still in working condition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Saint Dunstan\u2019s Church, circa 15th century<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We have a wonderful catch up with John, Linda and family talking motorhome and caravan adventures. We\u2019ll start our journey north tomorrow, but that\u2019s a story for another blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael + Pam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: 2nd October 2023 Travelled: 0 kms from Watten to Cranbrook \u00a0 Visited: Canterbury and Cranbrook \u00a0 Stayed: John and Linda\u2019s, free, N00.0000, E0.00000\u00a0\u00a0 Budget: 131 days @ \u20ac96 per day Bit of an update and a fast forward. We spend our last evening in France at one of our usual haunts, the aire at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":35020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,19,25],"tags":[81],"class_list":{"0":"post-35009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"category-france","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-english-villages","11":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35009"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35023,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35009\/revisions\/35023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}