#89 July 16, 2022 Nomad Diary. Chartwell and the Bothered Taxi Driver. Ash BnB with no B. Canterbury. London Flat House Sit.

Saturday Activities. 16. Stayed in our Dalston Kingston neighborhood and went to this street market. We purchased berries at a pound ($1.20 usd)for about a pound. The berries are really delicious as they are grown close to market and very fresh. We tried a French pastry shop too.

I sprinkled cinnamon on mine. This was at a place right next to our flat.

Week's Highlights. 

Sunday. 10. We return to Tunbridge Wells church. Darrell leads the Bible class and preaches too. There are many more people in attendance this week, 30 in all. Many come over to Margaret's house, just down the street, for a 'carry-in' lunch. In the US we call it a potluck or covered dish dinner. 

church people gathered in Margaret's kitchen.

Some of the carry-in lunch spread.

Monday. 11. We travel to Chartwell, the home of Winston Churchill now preserved into a very nice museum under National Trust. The house is furnished as it would have been in the 1930's. Without a car, and no direct bus, we had to take a short train ride there and then get a taxi to the place. What we didn't know was that the local taxi service is very limited, like one (not English) driver, who only comes if he cares to! lol. He first came to the train station to get us and drive us about 4 miles out to Chartwell. Later, when we were finished after 2pm, I think I interrupted his nap. I called him, and he tells me no and hangs up. We go over to the ticket center to get some help with our dilemma to find a ride back to the train station. A man helps to show us the guest phones and the car hire list. The taxi I just called had a strike through it. So Darrell calls a different company on the list. They tell us it will be 20 minutes. In 30 minutes, the driver who told me no, shows up (after hanging up on me and telling me he's not available).  When he shows up, I tell him we called a different company and then he says that it is just him! Boo. So, he realized that he had to pick us up in the afternoon to get us back to the train station, even though he didn't want to. Well, he got us there even with his attitude that this is not the job he wants! The worst part is that he was wearing his boxers! It was warm for the UK, but c'mon! (no, I didn't take a picture, oh but I thought about it! and also my 'nap interrupted theory')

Amazing Chartwell House!

Resting in the wooded walk at Chartwell 

Churchill's painting workshop.

Chartwell grounds.

Tuesday. 12. We pack up to leave Tonbridge and say our goodbyes to our fabulous hosts. Our host drives us to the Tonbridge station where we take the train, with one change, to Sandwich and then get a local bus to Ash and get off just 2 doors away from our BnB. We have to pay attention to every detail that we can because we are so new to this kind of travel. The train is very comfortable and we do fine. We arrive at the BnB before our check in time and we are warmly greeted by the owner. He says our room is ready, but he has had to close his restaurant recently because of some personal hardship. Now there is just one restaurant in town, a 10 minute walk from here, to eat lunch or breakfast. We haul our luggage up to the 2nd floor (that's 3rd floor in US language: 1, 2, 3) from, ground to 1st to 2nd. The door frame is short but the ceiling is ok. Darrell has to remember to duck! He doesn't always remember.

Darrell by the short door inside or BnB room!

Nice tree in Ash churchyard. 

Juliet's restaurant view in Ash.

 It's charming, quiet and comfy. We get to the only seated restaurant in town and get a delicious lunch. We also buy a box of strawberries and a package of cookies. They close after lunch, and we find later when we are hungry that there is a just-ok pizza take out. We make our plan to visit the city of Canterbury tomorrow. We figure out which bus, bus stop and time as well as discuss some of our personal expectations for what we each would like to see and do.

View of Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury. 

Wednesday. 13. We get on an early bus going to Canterbury. We have to watch the stops so that we get off at the correct one. The ride is about 25 minutes. At 7 am, there are people who are on their way to work and there are kids going to school on this local bus. The school kids wear uniforms designated by their particular school. One girl of about 7 years old gets on the bus with her black portfolio under her arm. She is followed by her 3 younger siblings, the smallest is in a stroller and Mom is riding along with everyone in tow. I think how challenging it is and think in my head, she gets a parent award! Good Mom! We get to Canterbury and find a breakfast restaurant as our first stop, and place to get wifi and see what all is here.  We had an amazing day of sight seeing and learning so much history! We also enjoyed some good food and a tea shop in mid-morning and in mid-afternoon.

St Augustine's Abbey ruins. 
 In Canterbury, we saw Roman ruins, Medieval gates and walls and buildings, Canterbury Cathedral which started here in 600ish AD and has been added to and claims bringing christianity to England (even though there is an older church build by Roman christians in like 300 AD just up the street from the big Cathedral), we saw the world hearitage and English Heritage site of the torn down St. Augustine's Abbey (built around 600ish AD, long before 1530ish when Henry VIII tore down the Abbeys in the disillusionment period), and we enjoyed the beautiful tourist town with the saved historical buildings and amazing stories to go with them.

St. Martin's Church view of the outside back Roman built church 300 AD. 

Information board.

Thursday. 14. On this day we check out of our Ash BnB and head off to our London Housesit. This is our first time to housesit since learning about how to do it from friends on the cruise ship. While on the cruise ship, Darrell signed up with trustedhousesitters.com, established our profile and began looking for places that fit our travel. Our first one begins here. 

Coco the cat in her London Flat.

One of my better pictures of Coco once she warmed up to me.
We arrive around 1:30 to the northeast London neighborhood of Dalston Kingston to meet the owner Erik and his siamese cat Coco in their 2 bedroom flat. Erik is meeting up with his wife and daughter in Sweden to vacation and visit his family. They have used trusted housesitters in the past, and selected us out of the applicants to keep their cat and live in their flat for 2 1/2 weeks. There is no money exchanged. So it is a win-win situation. Our mission is to keep the cat in the apartment and away from any open windows or doors as she has always been an inside cat and lived here. We also want to be good house keepers and good neighbors too. Before Erik heads to the airport he shows us around and visits for a few minutes then leaves us to our own. We are tired and we get settled and eat dinner out.

London architecture. 

Friday. 15. We made our way by bus to the British Museum. It's amazing! Loads of ancient artifacts! The Rosetta Stone is the single most popular exhibit, and I didn't get a good picture of it.

The British Museum. 

 I took other pictures that turned out good though. There are a lot of stone idols from different cultures and time periods. There was so much Egyptian history with mummy casks and information on their centuries used Book of the Dead. I came away so glad to know Christ and to have freedom in Him and in His truth. It was a great first touring day in London.

Darrell and this ancient king.

Nomad Notes. It takes time to get used to a new house. A place that is new to us holds a lot of new things to learn like how to turn on and successfully use each appliance; how to work the shower controls and plug the tub drain; where are the corners of the walls and doors so as to gently navigate the space; how to dispose of trash down to getting the recycling done correctly; which pans to use for cooking; which dishes to use for our meals; what to be very careful with and handwash, etc. As this experience is more common for us, we are getting more practiced with it and expanding our comfort zones into greater spaces too.