Mike and I visited Rye on Friday to celebrate Mike's birthday. We toyed an idea of visiting London, but he chose Rye because he hadn't visited Rye for a long time and wanted to see how it has changed.
Rye, East Sussex, is about 1 hour drive from Canterbury. It is a small town with the medieval buildings. It used to have a defence harbour before the Dutch came and drained marshes.
From the parking on the river side, we climbed the steep hill, and the first thing I saw was this shop! Knoops! Buttons in Dutch, I was taught. A lovely Jane, who and whose mother lives with two of my rabbits and a lamb, works here. I brought her a ceramic brochure from CAL as she has a degree in ceramics. I knew it was her off day, so I was going to leave it there.
We were also very keen to try their drinking chocolate! They have white, milk and dark with all sorts of strength. The numbers on the wall is percentages of chocolate you in drinks! We eventually had 70% dark chocolate milkshakes as it was a warm day.
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| Friendly owner and staff |
Then Jane appeared in pretty summer clothes! Look! We had a chat for about an hour. It was our first meeting but we have known each other on Twitter for a few years. Nice people on Twitter are nice people in person! She is a lovely gentle and quietly funny lady!
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| Lovely sandals matching the skirt! |
I have no skill of knitting. None. So this cheerful bird gave me so much fun after this!
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| Jane made the oystercatcher! |
After leaving Knoops, and left Jane with her another boss, we walked to a town. There are cobbles everywhere.
But the first thing I wanted to do was to take photos and tweet my new avian friend. His name is William of Orange. So I asked Mike to get my mobile ready. I have no skill of fiddling with mobile. William decided to take a vantage point. He had a good view of a river. A family walked past him. They smiled at him!
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| Mike is used to a bird perching on his head. We have parrots and used to have tame finches. |
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| A vantage point! |
Rye has so many 'antique' shops, but in fact they are more like brocante.
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| On the door |
As the milkshakes were quite rich, we had a late lunch at Webbe's, which is a branch of Webbe's in Hastings, we found out afterwards. As soon as we entered, I knew it was a right place. I saw four ladies of certain age in floral and pastel dresses with 15cm high pin heel, lunching with champagne and oysters in the air con.
Mike didn't drink. I had beer. This is Kentish brew called Curious brew from our favourite local wine maker, Chapel Down.
I had sea bass.
Mike had sea trout.
As we were fullish, we shared a desert, basil bavaroi with dark cherry sorbet.
After coffee, we were out in the sun again. I spotted a gate, which used to be a part of prison door.
Then we went to church tower. Last time we came with my mother, we went up.
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| A rare view of Midori |
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| William of Orange |
We didn't know then, but if we walked more, there was a castle! We walked in a wrong direction and found Admiral's house. William rested on the bell.
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| The bell at the Admiral's house |
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| What are they? |
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