Monday (18 August), continued with the house sitting in Kent, this afternoon we went to Chartwell House, Winston Churchill’s house. A national trust property, well volunteered, never seen so many volunteers at a National Trust property. For a Monday it was really busy, glad we booked tickets for the house, as not sure we would have got in if we had just turned up. We continue to cause interest at the National trust with our Manx National Heritage membership cards, as they have a reciprocal agreement so we get in free, but no-one has ever seen the Manx Cards, at Chartwell they even looked them up in the NT manual, to check.
Chartwell House itself was an interesting house, showing the more personal side of Churchill (less Prime Ministerial) also showing his artwork. It also had well cared for gardens and substantial grounds. Plus good flapjack at the cafe !
Tuesday, time for packing again. We did take some time out to visit a local church which had a number of stained glass windows designed by Marc Chagall.
Wednesday, we drove up to Widnes to collect friends for a European road trip. (We’d originally agreed to pick them up en route from Pock when heading South, before our plans changed). Today there was a lorry accident on the M6 motorway, so the drive was a little longer than expected. We still arrived in enough time to have a nice meal at a local pub.
Thursday, we drove back down to Kent, had a better drive down, had another nice meal in a local pub.
Friday, we headed to the Channel Tunnel for the Shuttle, it’s the Friday before the bank holiday weekend, so the check in was busy, our train was showing at least a half hour delay, but then staff were walking around the car park telling us just to head to passport control when we were ready, so we headed straight through, and after a bit of a wait, managed to get a train at our departure time, but not sure it was actually our allotted train.
A 3 hour drive to Namur in Belgium, for one night in the Chateau de Namur hotel, a lovely hotel which is also a catering school, so in the restaurant we had a wonderful dinner.
Saturday, after a good breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and went for a walk around the citadel of Namur, watched a wedding party around the grounds.
Then we drove on into Germany, to our AirBnB near Cologne. Did some supermarket shopping on the way, which is always fun in a foreign country/Language.
The AirBnB is in a very quiet location, it’s the most well equipped, spacious and value for money AirBnB we have stayed in. It works out at £18 per person per night.
Sunday, after all the recent driving, we had a day off, so we walked to the next village to a Pancake restaurant, which was so good we have booked again for Friday lunch.
Travurple 