Cranbrook via Staplehurst to Dover Sunday 27 April

We woke to Grey skies, and because I have re - organised our luggage, we don't have much to take for each stay, but I managed to leave my Columbia jacket at our B&B, as it fell out of the London bag.

Lucky it was not all that cold, 12 degrees if we are lucky, and we had a nice stay at Weald Cottage, where Susan was very hospitable, except they decided to go missing for the day.

First stop was to Cranbrook,  and the magnificent church.  So many old graves, most are unreadable.   Then it was up High Street to find Rev Peter Jennings's house, Myrtle Cottage.  We found it first time,  and spoke with a neighbours who told us the young couple who owned it were on holidays, so we didn't get a look see. It is a Grade 1 Classified building which was left to the state when Sybil died.

The church of St Dunstans in Cranbrook g.grandfather's local church

Then to Sissinghurst gardens. While they were beautiful now you can only imagine what it will look like in a few weeks time.

And the bird count, we saw a most beautiful coloured bird bit like a sparrow and all in an English country garden.

Then back to Cranbrook to find their Windmill,  not as nice as ours, but built in a different style.

Along some of the better roads for a while, we had some time and thought we would check out Leeds Castle, after several different narrow lanes because of diversions we didn't think it was worth 50 quid to visit.  So another scenic route, cause Heidi takes a while to reposition herself, and we headed to Dover.

As we arrived  early we did a bit of touring, finding the Buckland Estate, a really horrible conglomeration of housing, built in the early 1950's,  to house the displaced from East End after the war.  It is quite unattractive,  when you consider that g.g.grandfather George Jennings owned much of the land.

We visited an historic corn mill, next to the river Dour with brown trout living in the algae.  The Miller raised 18 kids in a couple of rooms guess there was no TV back then. 

This was a really old part of the town 1812 when the mill was built, imagine finding the way to the front door, and the baby ducklings seemed very happy.

I was a bit worried about this B&B but all is well, a lovely old 2 story home with magnificent lead light in the panels. Guess who is on the top floor?

After the rain cleared we set off and immediately in front of us was Dover Castle in the sun.  We have learnt to take a photo at every opportunity because it might rain, so we did and headed up the hill to take some more.

We were going to have Italian veal for dinner, but we found the Harbour instead, with a couple of lovely hotels.  We had dinner at The Waterfront Restaurant of the Mövenpick Hotel.  Lovely meal, and to our surprise we were in the middle of 82 Dutch mini minor owners on a rally. 

The Harbour holds special memories as Ellen's brother fell into the Harbour and died, she lived near there with grandfather Robert Mudge, and her brother lived in Maison Dieu St, so we photographed as much as we could.

Two more days here and a lot of places to find, and to do the castle!