last friday we took off at the impossible hour of 2am towards our beloved Tunbridge Wells to celebrate our wedding anniversary.
for the first time we went on a holiday without our kids and i must say it was totally different. allthough we love our children more than anything else, it doesn't hurt too much to leave them at their grandparents every once in a while

for the first time too, we were unfaithfull to P&O ferries.
their prices for the Calais-Dover crossing have raisen incredibly so we chose to try DFDS seaways and did the Dunquerque-Dover crossing.
we must say, it was a most entertaining experience to cross the Channel with DFDS seaways.
their ships are extremely comfortable, they have all kinds of facilities P&O doesn't have and so much more.

at about 8am on friday morning we arrived in Dover harbour and we both my wife and I felt again "like we come home".
we drove to Manor Court Farm where we got our usual warm welcome by our landlady Sarah.
unfortunately it started raining while we were on our way from Dover to Tunbridge Wells but that couldn't spoil our good mood.

after we installed ourselves in our room, we drove to RVP to do some shopping and we bought some presents to give to eachother
we had a quick lunch at the food court on RVP's ground floor and continued shopping.

we carried our bags to the car afterwards and we took a walk down Mount Pleasant Road to meet Charlie Rose (the extremely nice gentleman who did the interview on us for BBC South East Today) at the BBC Kent television studios.
he was very pleased to see us and invited us to take a tour around the TV and radio studios from BBC Kent.
this was a very entertaining experience, i would even dare to say a "WAAAW" experience.
we also met Polly, one of the hosts of BBC South East Today. she is a most gentle person and very charming.

after we said goodbeye to Charlie and the rest of the BBC Kent crew, we went for a drink at The Ragged Trousers, our favourite pub.
i took a pint of Dipper, my favourite beer from The Royal Tunbridge Wells Brewing Company and my wife just had a coke...
meanwhile, we ordered a table for two for sunday lunch.
we also visited the Tunbridge Wells museum that day which was most pleasant as well.

afterwards we drove to Sainsbury's to do some shopping, took off to the farm again and had a few sandwiches.
so a very exciting first day came to an end and at about 8pm we already fell asleap with a big smile on our faces.

on saturday morning we woke up, washed up and enjoyed Sarah's wonderful breakfast.
the weather was very good on saturday so we drove to the city centre for a nice long walk. we discovered some very nice things we had never noticed before. we took a walk at Calverley Crescent (a special thanks to Christopher Cassidy and his wonderful website for this!) and discovered more beautiful spots at Calverley Grounds as well.
we had the best times ever!

after taking a quick lunch we took off to Culverden Stadium where our friends from the Tunbridge Wells Football Club were waiting for us.
as usual, we had a real good time at Culverden and Phill, the club's secretary even made an announcement for our wedding anniversary for the whole stadium! (in dutch!!!)
unfortunately the result of the game wasn't as bright as the weather but we keep supporting this great local team anyway.

on saturday night we treated ourselves to a fantastic dinner at the Chafford Arms pub.
tired but delighted about the wonderful day we had, we returned to Manor Court Farm and went to sleep, again with a big smile on our faces

as we woke up on sunday morning, the sun was there already and again we enjoyed Sarah's breakfast.
unfortunately we had to pack our bags on that day, the most unpleasant thing to do when you're in Tunbridge Wells...
we said goodbeye to Sarah, said goodbeye to all the farm animals and took off towards Sainsbury's to get some groceries to take along to Belgium.

the sun guided us towards The Pantiles where we took a nice and calm walk at, regarding to us, one of the most beautiful places on earth.
at about midday we headed towards The Ragged Trousers for our Sunday lunch, superbly prepared as usual by masterchef Sebastien.

and so the time for "bye and see you soon" had arrived again
we drove towards Dover to catch te 4pm ferry and after a nice trip (thanks DFDS seaways!) we arrived in Dunquerque.

with our minds and hearts full of great memories we drove back to Vilvoorde and we already look forward to our next trip to our beloved and precious Tunbridge Wells!

21-03-2011 om 20:00 geschreven door philip-cindy