#105 2022 October 22-28. Nomad Diary. My 58th. Week in Deal, English Channel.
Talking to Owen on the phone.
Darrell doing his Spanish lesson while Percy the Cockapoo sets up his ball for fetch.
Beautiful view of the English Channel with a rocky beach.
Me at the Walmer Castle Door!
In the moat with fall colors.
One of the beautiful gardens on the castle grounds.
Me playing at Walmer Castle playground.
Saturday Activities.
Saturday 22. Today is my 58th birthday! I have always loved my October birthday and I am partial to fall weather and the seasonal memories. Leaves changing colors and falling. Soups, sweaters, chilly cheeks, crisp air. I love it all in the fall. Today was so lovely with sunshine and clear skies over the English channel in our town of Deal. Darrell wishes me happy birthday and tells me that it is all about me today! After we complete our morning DDP stand up routine and give Percy, our pet dog some love and attention, Darrell offers to make us pancakes. I accept and we have a grand breakfast with dark coffee, homemade pancakes made with Skyr yogurt from Iceland, fresh berries, real maple syrup, egg and bacon. We have a sweet time chatting over breakfast and getting through our thoughts and contemplations of the past evening’s rest. I clean up the dishes and Darrell gets his correspondence needs completed over the next hour or so. Then we take off to walk to the beach and 45 minutes to Walmer castle for a self-guided tour. On our way we see the Deal Saturday market and walk through. There is a variety of items from fresh and local foods, cheeses, meats, baked goods, coffee and some stands with jewelry, antiques and other unique art offerings.
We head on toward the castle. We pass Deal castle and figure that we will tour it later during our stay. We stop at a coffee shop on the beach side for a cappuccino and snack. It’s about 11 am and it is my birthday! Darrell gets a junkyard cookie which he oo’s and ahh’s over as he eats it with his coffee and gives me a detailed description! Lol. I chose a slice of three ginger cake. It is moist and dark and delicious. I’ll call this my birthday cake! We sit in beach chairs set up by the shop in the pebbled beach. There are several obvious tourists walking along the beachfront and stopping at a choice of coffee shops to enjoy this gorgeous day. We notice the cars parked along the road just inland and we are reminded of our closest beach to our Alabama home in Destin, Florida. We like to go in off season when the traffic is low.
We continue walking to the castle and enter for our self-guided tour with our annual English Heritage membership pass. This has gotten us into so many castles, houses and museums and has been a great purchase for our 4 months here. This castle was built in the 1500’s and then made into a liveable residence in the 1700’s for the Duke of Wellington. It was given to Arthur Wellesley sometime after he won against Napoleon at Waterloo. He lived into his 80’s and for decades stayed at this location in the fall. He even died here with the story recounted by a volunteer to us in the very room with his personal furnishings set up as they were in the 1800’s.
We finished the inside tour of the castle without taking pictures as they weren’t allowed. Then we toured the grounds. Wow! The grounds were layed out with two beautiful gardens growing flowers and vegetables in one. Between the two flower gardens were two more areas. One was a large lawn and the other was a broad walkway with flowers and shrubs on either side leading back to the back woodland walk of the property. In the woodland walk were paths and playgrounds decorated with big play items built out of large hollowed out tree trunks. There were many families with their children enjoying the grounds and the walks between the playgrounds.
We finished at the castle with a circle walk inside the dry moat. We left around 2pm and walked back toward Deal for a late lunch. We ended up at an Italian restaurant and enjoyed calamari and pizza. Then we went for ice cream, and back to our house. We stayed at the house. In the evening we made salads for dinner as has become one of our favorite dinners especially after a large breakfast and lunch. Darrell called his mom. While we were on that call, I got a call from a former massage client. We are connected on Facebook and she called me by mistake! We visited and laughed together making a plan for a get-together when I’m in Alabama in Dec-Jan. Both Eric and Jeremy with their families called to wish me a happy birthday! All in all a wonderful day turning 58! We had some pop corn and watched an Antiques Road Trip show on TV! lol.
Week’s Happenings.
Beautiful cake at Polish restaurant.
My dinner at the Polish restaurant. Pork Stew with mashed potatoes, 2 salads (one is beet and onion) and garlic sauce.
Picture out of our bedroom window. The neighborhood is quiet except for a train 2x a day.
Sunday. 23. Today there is supposed to be lots of rain. We are too far to find a church of Christ group, and we will dial in online at 3pm for our lesson, singing and communion. We walked between rains to the sea with our pet cockapoo Percy. It’s about .7 miles from our house. We found the 3rd castle ruins that is now covered at the north end of the Deal Promenade.
Darrell at the Julius Caesar Landed here in 50ish B.C. monument!
Looking back at Deal from the pier.
Deal Promenade and pebbled beach.
Monday. 24. This day is a home ‘regular’ day for us. Morning exercise. Make breakfast and enjoy morning coffee together. Walk the dog. Take a long beach side walk. Eat lunch out at one of the several restaurant choices. Get some groceries. Have salad for dinner. Do some laundry which here in England usually means to hang dry it for at least 24 hours! Darrell spent about 3 hours today researching and planning our Saturday travel plans for the ferry to Calais, and the trains to Roeselare, Belgium, and then to France and Barcelona for our November 6th cruise departure.
Lots of narrow walkways in Deal.
Beach closeup.
Percy, our pet cockapoo for the week.
Tuesday. 25. Again a ‘routine’ day for us similar to Monday. We each have online Spanish lessons we do. Darrell is farther and more dedicated to this than I am. I purchased an e-book about the Duke of Wellington who lived part-time at Walmer Castle and is famous for defeating Napoleon at Waterloo. He has a lot written about him. I found an interesting looking book and a fairly recent book written by one of his descendants. I don’t buy many books but I do enjoy reading biographies and memoirs occasionally. We enjoyed a Turkish restaurant by the beach for lunch today. The prices are discounted since we are off-season. The dollar is also quite strong in exchange value now too. There is also an ice cream place that we frequent if we decide. I have a couple of girlfriends in the states that I call and chat with. We encourage each other by bringing to mind scriptures that we are studying and how we are growing in our lives as christians. I have decided to think about this kind of encouragement and pray to increase my mind to have these conversations more and more for me and for others. I see this as increasing my mind to “think on these things” (Philippians) and to share joy with others in this way. We had a call with our grandson Owen today! Tuesday night we join in with Tunbridge Wells online Bible study.
The walkway north of Deal headed for the Bay of Sandwich.
Wednesday. 26. Similar day today. Stand Up exercise routine (DDP Yoga). Breakfast pancakes by Darrell with fresh berries and strong coffee. Dog walk and care. Long walk by the beach. Time on the computer researching New Zealand and some big questions about our time there that begins in October 2023. The big question is how are we getting around? We currently have decided to rent a car and stay at hotels, airbnb’s and housesits. From reading articles online, the cost to rent a contained campervan can match or surpass our choice. We look into the possibility of taking a spring 2023 cruise out of Galveston, Texas. Darrell shares the information with his sister who lives in Texas and she is interested to possibly go together. We begin the research for what can work for her vacation and budget.
Inside Deal Castle. A prison cell.
Big Castle door.
A door knocker that is unique and a bit creepy. This town is loaded with door knockers! This one is on Middle Street.
View of Deal Promenade from Deal Castle
Thursday. 27. Another beautiful day with an amazing sunrise around 7-7:30 am. More laundry today. A couple grocery items needed: eggs and sourdough bread. Spending several hours today choosing our excursions for our Western Mediterranean Cruise coming up on November 6th. Two long walks by the beach of course. We went to Deal Castle today and did the self-guided tour.
Friday. 28. Our final night at our housesit in Deal. Plans in place for our travel to Belgium tomorrow. Today we walked south along the coast past Walmer to Kings Down. Stopped on the way to sit at the beach with a coffee. We walked up on top of some chalky cliffs. When we came back down, we stopped to have lunch at a pub. We came back to Deal and by the ice cream shop. There are a considerable number of tourists in town for the weekend now. We are resting back at our house for the afternoon. Plans to eat out at a Polish restaurant in our neighborhood.
Nomad Notes: Enjoying recovering from being tired. Feeling refreshed each day to take a long walk in the beautiful fall weather along the coast. Getting excited about the travel back to the US (arrival December 2nd), but still enjoying the day to day living with so much to see do and share.
Darrell and I have talked about how using technology has really improved our ability to travel and find services, and stay connected to friends and family. Having my phone on a long cord around my neck has made me feel much more secure to carry it and keep it close with me.
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