A little trip to a few lesser-known places

 The sun was shining, and the local villages were calling. I needed to go and collect my meat and vegetables etc. from the Farm Shop that we use. It's about 12 miles from home............

..........0r twice that, and 3 hours from home in this weather.

Plus a few more history blanks to fill in. So, if you look at the two Kent pages, you will find more info on Aldington, Ivychurch, Kingsnorth and Snave-Wick (although the latter, I couldn't take all the pictures I needed, so I will have to go back at some point)

On my way to do the updates now...........

The County Town of Kent

Today, it was threatening rain (again!), so I decided to hop on a train and go explore our county town of Maidstone. I chose the train because bike parking in Maidstone is not easy to find.

All the years I worked on the edge of the town, I've never really explored it. The town centre is not too badly off for shops, and there are some lovely old buildings, in various states of repair. There's also some interesting history.

The town grew up around the confluence of the rivers Medway and Len, and there's a lovely walk along the banks of the Medway. The archbishops' palace is lovely, and the parish church of All Saints next door, is an imposing edifice

Sadly, I didn't have time to visit either the local museum, or the Tyrwhitt-Drake museum of carriages. So I will probably return in the winter time, when I'm looking for warm places to be.

For those who don't know, most of the traffic revolves (literally) around the river. The town centre is largely pedestrianised and all the vehicles are forced to go round the perimeter via a dual carriageway and a gyratory system which goes over Maidstone Bridge, and back via St. Peter's Bridge. The volume of traffic is horrendous and they only slow down when they're forced to.

And then there are ducks. To be precise mamma and 3 babies - intent on crossing 6 lanes of nose to tail traffic to get to the pond by the old Rootes building. And there was a workman and myself trying to hold the traffic so that she could cross safely, and then shepherding them along the railings to find a point where she could access the water. And we only got yelled at once! Most people were content to wait and had their phones out recording the little flock and its' human sheepdogs!

Just waiting for the camera to finish uploading, and then I'll add them to the Kent1 page. I probably won't get around to the words though until Sunday. I still have a lot of research to do 

The fair weather continues.................

 After last year's almost total wash-out, so far this year, I've been making a lot of headway on catching up with my history visits. This is my 3rd. trip out this week!

Today was a day for taking one of the smaller bikes, and finding strange churches in strange places.

Sadly, a lot of country churches are kept locked when not in use, due to them often being remote from their villages. (The Black Death has a lot to answer for!)

One I went in, had a notice just inside which read: 'Are you exploring on your own? Do you have a mobile phone? Why not let someone know where you are?' 

These trips I do, are my chance to have some 'me' time - just doing what I like to do, and enjoying my own company. 

However, as I left the church, and turned to close the door, I tripped over a boot scraper and fell flat on my face.  That made me think - I was OK, only my pride was hurt. But what if I had banged my head and was unconscious? I could have laid there for days, and nobody would know.

So from now on, when I am off by myself exploring, every time I stop somewhere, I will text my location to my other half, so that he knows where I last was, and at what time.  You never know..........

I'm on my way now to begin updating the Kent2 page. And there's a lot to cover

Just passing through...........

 This morning I picked my bike up after having new tyres fitted. The sun was shining, so of course, that meant I 'needed' to go and ride around 100 miles to scrub them in. 

Although it was purely a day for riding, I did take a couple of short breaks to go and find some points of interest.

So, go and check out the Kent 2 page under Birchington and Garlinge - only minimal info at the moment, but Birchington is on my list for a full study, and just for a little taster..................