June 18. South Again

This morning we packed up and started heading south again. Our first stop, an hour a way, was Bury St Edmunds. This turned out to be a pleasant mid-sized town with some sort of market running in the narrow high street. We mainly walked around the medieval abbey ruins and somewhat-more-recent St Edmundbury Cathedral.

Our next stop was just on the outskirts of Bury - another stately home. Ickworth is set in enormous gardens and it's an odd, neo-classical style with a huge cupola in the central building and then curving corridors to each wing. The upper floors were well-maintained and full of paintings. The lower level was an interesting re-creation of the servants' area.

From there we drove down to London, back across the Dartford Crossing, to the Bluewater shopping centre. We were there a couple of hours, in Marks and Spencer and having something to eat. The the final our or so through Kent to reach Herne Bay in the early evening.

1 May. Belvedere and Places of Cultural Significance

 An excursion to the outskirts of London today, an hour and a half up the M2.

The main stop was to see Lynn's ex-mother-in-law and sister-in-law in Belvedere. They were happy to talk and we were happy to listen. The we scrambled about to find somewhere for lunch - more difficult as Lynn was (rightly) horrified at the state of her childhood haunts and we ended up going to a supermarket. But in the process we passed one of the units where Lynn grew up.

Jenner House, Belvedere

We tried one of Lynn's old friends without success and ended up going to Bluewater. This is an enormous shopping centre built in an old quarry in Dartford, south east London. But were were only there to see the Marks and Spencer. Technically the third M&S we've been to, and by far the biggest. But not super-exciting and they're experiencing a sustained cyber attack which makes it harder to buy things.

I fell asleep on the drive back, but was revived to walk into Herne Bay at the end of the day. Unfortunately the picture doesn't capture the swimmers and people on their deck chairs.

Herne Bay Sea Front