Day 5: Final Day in Kent

The gorgeous bright morning sun gave us a great sense of optimism for today's plans: to see as much as possible! We nipped out at the crack of 8:30am to swing through the town of Tunbridge Wells to see their famous Pantiles (arcaded shopping street). Portia lead us smartly through the early traffic right to a empty parking spot and off we went to find....

All was closed, of course, and it was too cold for us to sit outside with a coffee but I can see how pleasant it would be to do so a warm afternoon.

A few miles further we located All Saint's Church, a small country church that has 12 amazing Marc Chagall stained glass windows that were commissioned in the melancholic memory of a young woman who drowned at the age of 21. 

Just 10 am and already 2 sites under our belt! Next we motored north to the National Trusts's Emmett's Garden. Started in 1895 the 6 acre garden was the passion of its two owners until handed over to the Trust in 1964. Magnolias, camellias, azaleas, rhododendrons and so many other gorgeous flowering bushes. Tulips, daffodils, bluebells, narcissus, trilliums, hyacinths - so many colors! I love Spring!

Lunchtime! We'd been having nice cups of soup and cream teas other days at our Trust properties so we were talking ourselves into another tasty repast at Knole, destination #4. Yet the tearoom was closed for renovation! Strike One.  No photos allowed inside = Strike Two. Cold, dark, and a lot of materials and pieces removed for restoration. Strikeout. Yup, not our favorite. 

Monumentally huge, tourists are limited to a number of 'showrooms' which were actually rooms used to display the owners wealth ever since the mid-1600's. Heavy wooden paneling, dozens and dozens of paintings of important people, ornately painted grand stairways - all to illustrate their status and connections. Left us cold (and still hungry).  A nice pub meal put us right and improved our outlook for our last adventure.

We returned to Scotney Castle, this time with plenty of time before closing(!) and we were so pleased we did. The main house was only built in 1837, and lived in until 2006 when the owner died at age 99 and it was immediately taken over by the Trust, with the interior pretty much intact as a cozy combination of 1830's/1950's decor. Previous to that, the family had actually lived in a moated castle, the one now in ruins at the bottom of the garden!  Built in 1348, then rebuilt in the 1680's, it was falling apart so they helped it on its way by using bricks and architectural elements harvested from it to combine with stone quarried on site to build the new house. 

The castle...

                                Just a few rooms are left to visit

                 View from castle back up the garden to the 'new' house 

And that ended our trip to England! Tomorrow we have a very early start to beat the morning traffic back to Heathrow so we can board a plane for our trip to Russia!  More from Moscow!