A sunny holiday

well, sunny in temperament if not in temperature! [still snow!] We went to Kingsdown near Deal in a little wooden chalet for our hols. HOnestly it was freezing! we put lots of pound coins in the leccy meter and it warmed up! Nice chalet, nice and quiet out of season, swimming pool nice and warm and entirely to ourselves [changing room a bit small] Anyway, an excellent base. it is a shame we hadn’t realised that english heritage have really cut back on their out of season opening, and that canterbury cathedral was closed till friday due to a new archbishop… However we filled our week quite happily.

Things we enjoyed:

Dover castle – although it was absolutely freezing! The Operation dynamo in the tunnels is really well done and really moving [no photos] and WW2 is an area of history we haven’t really covered much, and it is clear that we need to, as both girls were v struck by it. [it cropped up in dover museum later as well]. The mediaeval castle is also excellent – and loved the display on Henri 2nd. The cafe serving vegetarian roast dinner was superb

Beach by the site – tho stoney/shingle rather than sand. SB went in the sea for a very short and crazy moment, we collected some of the very many cuttlefish bones about. ALso a lot of mermaids purses. We brought a couple back and must do this helpfully found my M for us. They are def rays, but we need to soak to see the size to complete the id – and we def have 2 different types.

Dover Museum and the Bronze age Boat. This bronze age boat is most definately worth a visit from anyone in the area. pretty central in dover in a bijou museum, what a find! top floor. We spent ages in that part of the museum. we also did a geocache that day.

Morellis at broadstairs – actually the girls really enjoyed broadstairs beach, and if the temp hadn’t felt approx absolute zero, it may have had more enthusiasm from adults! would want to visit some dickens stuff another time, but BB desperately wanted to go to a sandy beach – so we did. However, Morellis, is utterly 100% fab and delish . We still had a fab day, but i just don;t think those photos encompass just how cold it was [wearing a long sleeved t, a jumper, a zip up thick fleece and a fleece lined coat, double gloves and a hat! - actually i wore this many layers every day i think!]

Fort Lympne – actually i was a bit disappointed, it was really expensive and most animals were hiding due to the cold and it was so very ‘out of season’ that I think it should either have been shut or offered a reduction TBH. I am quite happy that it is a sanctuary, that the animals have a lot of roaming space etc, but if there is a temp where the majority will be in house and you can’t see in [bearing in mind that in some places - africa alive, monkey world etc there are peering in places so you might think this is an option here] the signage is poor etc, that approaching £100 is way too much – even if it can be a year long passport, if you live a way away you can’t take advantage of this. i think there should be an out of season half price [which can't be converted into passport] that you can buy. the shop even closed 30 mins before the site, so we had to do shop before we got round. however, the safari ended up being better than expected, and utterly redeemed the day by BB getting a fab pic of zebra and us being so close to them. DH spilling coffee all over our camera such that it no longer works was not such a high point. but it was freezing. oh, and we were 20 mins late out.

canterbury – a bit of a redeemed disaster tbh, we swam in the morning due to applied pressure from kids before we set out, and unfortunately once we got there dh realised left wallet and all money behind. between us i had £20, SB £17 and BB £5 and we needed lunch and admission to canterbury cathedral and park and ride. Actually impressed girls were ok with pooling in their money but we couldn’t get into the cathedral and lunch, so had lunch and then went to the museum. this was supposed to be a twin ticket with the roman museum, but that is shut. felt a bit doomed! However, since obviously crestfallen, the curator gave us reduced price admission tickets, so we needn’t spend BB’s money, and only a small bit of SB’s . the museum, tho not canterbury cathedral which is the thing i had set my heart on visiting, was actually quite excellent, particularly the modern penned not-bayeux which was the life of thomas beckett. girls loved me reading the whole thing aloud, looking for the witty drawings. the rest also good with interactive areas for the kids and lots of inormation for adults, but this best. the rupert bear bit on the end slightly surreal… so day redeemed again . Particularly as the girls got to spend some money in an old fashiponed sweet shop and a fudge kitchen!

The holiday came to an end too soon, we also played games, watched cooking programmes on tv, factored in a few more swims and the girls were a bit scary scootering down the paths! After a last swim in definately arctic conditions we went to the cafe at the end of deal pier – v nice – and then drove home in a blizzard!