A Very English Sumer by Aileen Cleave

A Very English Summer

 It’s October now and the suffocating heat of the summer months is almost forgotten, but those months did happen!   Every year my husband and I do our best to escape them , and this year we returned to friends and family in England - in Kent to be exact.

As always when we drive over, we try to make the journey part of our holiday.  We used to drive the whole way, up past Madrid to the French border and on through Bordeaux or at times, the Pyrenees, all the way to Calais, but now, older and wiser, we take Brittany Ferries from Bilbao to Portsmouth.  It’s still some  900 kilometres to Bilbao so we planned our route to include three hotels including one in Bilbao for an easy drive to the port on sailing day.  I had always wanted to see Cuenca with the famous hanging houses but because it’s quite a detour from the autovia , we’ve never done it.  This time we did, and how pleased was I!  Our hotel was only a couple of miles from the Old City, but my walking isn’t up to that now, especially in such heat, so the hotel called us a taxi and the very accommodating driver gave us an informative tour of Las Casas Colgadas and the 1.000 year old Catedral inside the ancient city  walls for just 11 euros (plus tip, of course) and waited patiently while I photographed them from every angle.

After a pleasant but uneventful journey, we arrived in Portsmouth the following evening and disembarked at 9. 15.  Out first port of call was to our  daughter in Sevenoaks, an hour and a half’s drive away.  Well, it should have been.  As we followed the directions on Google Maps, it became clear that roads were being closed faster than Google‘s satellite was being updated.  Battling as we were with the darkness, the narrower roads,  the need to revert to driving on the left and use feet, yards and miles, our journey became rapidly more stressful.  As though to add insult to injury, because of the proliferation of road works and continually changing speed limits, my husband was flashed by a speed camera.  I won’t relate the ensuing expletives!   We eventually arrived some three hours later,  having traversed roads that should have been easy and familiar.

No matter, humour  was quickly restored after a good nights sleep, and we embarked on our rediscovery of English delights.  High on my list is shopping and both Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells (where our younger daughter lives) still have High Streets with independent shops rather than the ubiquitous shopping malls.  Another joy, this time shared by my husband, are the Kentish pubs, and once we’ve have recovered from the initial shock of the  £9 pint and £8 glass of wine, we can enjoy the atmosphere.

It was decided we would go to the coast, en famille.  Our son and his wife were visiting us from South Korea en route to their holiday in Italy, so they were very happy to join us.  Broadstairs was chosen, somewhat to my surprise, because it’s a little further east than we usually go, Eastbourne being the nearest.    However, Broadstairs was lovely, a beautiful, yellow sandy beach in an interesting old town, where several of the houses display signs saying “Charles Dickens did NOT live here”.   At the end of the village overlooking the very pretty bay, stands a handsome, if somewhat grim looking house bearing the legend Bleak House.  Dickens did live here and wrote his novel of that name from here.

And then, the pinnacle of our trip.  We went to Hever, to Hever Castle.   I have been many times before to this historic castle in Kent, but never seen it quite like this night.  It is by any standards an incredibly beautiful place, deep in the Weald of Kent and surrounded by the gentle rise and fall of the South Downs.   But this night it was staging Anne Boleyn the Musical and it truly came into its own,  once more back in time to the 1530’s with Henry VIII striding through its ‘corridors’ like a malevolent conqueror (he even appeared  riding a white charger) and Anne Boleyn desperately trying to keep her head, just recently filled with all manner of sophisticated ideas from Europe.  

 It was  spectacular.  The auditorium was a huge marquee with one side completely open to show the castle, lit up  in all its majesty and the stage, set amidst beautiful woods and grounds.  The production company is Historalia Productions,  a Belgian company who have created musicals depicting well known historical  figures such as  Marie Antoinette, and Joan of Arc.  I couldn’t help thinking how amazing would be a story of the Catholic Monarchs played out in front of the Alhambra in Granada -  I might write to them and suggest it.

So ended our English excursion.  We had shopped, quaffed and immersed ourselves in family, friends and culture; it was certainly a holiday to remember.