When we left Beziers last Tuesday when there were magnificent views of the snow on the Pyrenees from the plane.
The first two nights were spent with Helen, Nick and Ernie. On Wednesday, Pat looked after Ernie while Helen and Nick worked and John visited Cambridge to do a little maintenance on our house.
Ernie and Pat went on their usual tour of parks and coffee shops while doing the small amount of shopping that Ernie will tolerate (I'm a boy Nana - I don't *like* shops!). Usually, Ernie will fall asleep in the pushchair in the late morning, especially after a baby chino and run around the park, but he had a bad cough, so each time that he nodded off, he woke himself up with a coughing fit.
Eventually, after lunch and with no intention of lying down for a sleep on Ernie's part, we went out to the closer Elthorne Park, where the result was inevitable.
Meanwhile, in Cambridge the parents of one of our Chinese tenants were visiting. They had prepared a delicious lunch for John. They are here for about a month and this was their first trip to Europe, so they are making the most of it, seeing Paris, Venice, Rome and other cities.
On Thursday, Helen and Ernie travelled to Whitstable on the Kent coast by car while we took the train (by the time that Ernie and his equipment were in the car with our cases, there just wasn't room for us!). We were to spent 5 nights there while Helen and Nick looked around the area.
Whitstable is a fishing port and there are many interesting houses.
The town has the usual collection of shops for visitors: book shops, toy shops, children's clothes etc.
Apart from a Budgen's and Boots', it's mostly small shops and restaurants including a very good cheese shop, which Pat made several visits to and which has cheese and wine evenings on Fridays and Saturdays.
Wheelers is an oyster bar and restaurant where Helen and Nick ate one evening and on their recommendation, we made a reservation for the following evening. It can seat a maximum of 16 people.
On another evening, we ate at a splendid pub style Michelin one star restaurant just outside Whitstable, The Sportsman. While the food is of the quality one would expect from the Michelin star, the ambiance is that of a pub with very good service. We started with lightly poached oysters and then enjoyed smoked salmon and smoked mackerel before moving onto lamb and duck. We had to admit defeat on the pudding menu!
While it was cold and raining some of the time, we saw some sun and managed to get to the beach where Ernie enjoyed walking and sliding on the stones, examining them and throwing them into the sea.
He has a passion for slopes and can spend ages just going up and down.
We found a couple of good playgrounds, one is at Whitstable Castle, originally a private home built as an octagonal tower in 1790. This is the entrance.
As well as gardens, there is a very good playground
Ernie particularly liked the strange shaped swing
At the other end of town there is another playground with more conventional swings, so we tried that too. We had seen the little girl, Hope, in both playgrounds
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We left Whitstable on Tuesday and made our way to James in Hackney, where we spent the night before taking the train this morning.
- Pat and John on tour
