Valentine's Weekend Day 3

Mermaid Street, Rye
Originally uploaded by Sculpher.

Along with our hosts Diane and Robert, as well as Colin and Robin, we were joined by another young couple from the south of London for breakfast. We enjoyed another social beginning to our day, then retired up to our rooms to complete packing. Check-out at 11, we elected to visit the ancient nearby town of Rye.
We had driven through Rye several times, but although it was very close to the B&B we had never actually stopped there. Driving through, there is nothing spectacular about it. It was evident it had at least once been a fishing town, but driving through the town centre, seeing a bland looking fish and chip shop Kettle o’ Fish, some motorcyclists congregrated in a small parking lot, and not much else. I couldn’t believe there was anything ancient or charming about it.
We parked anyway, and walked through a field and across a train track to the centre of town. Hanging a left, we found the well hidden gem that is the village of Rye.
We came upon a cobblestone hill called Mermaid Street, which was older than medieval. It was narrow, with large cobbles, and even though naming houses is very common in England, the names of these particular houses were noteworthy. There was “The House With the Seat”, with a tiny seat built into the front stairs, “The House Opposite”, across the street from The Mermaid Inn, and “The End House”, at the end of the street.
We followed the street to the right, passing Lamb House, which once belonged to novelist Henry James, up to St. Mary’s Parish Church, which was in the centre of over a dozen small cottages. The doors were closed as Sunday Morning Service was still going on, however, as we made our way around the nearby streets we could hear the commotion suggesting church had just been let out. We were met at the door by the vicar, and entered the lovely, medieval church with enormous stained glass windows as the organ music played all around us. We saw the village community chatting and visiting with each other, and felt so great to be a small part of that.
As it was Sunday, many stores were closed, but we were able to walk around and experience a great deal of the town. The very narrow, cobblestone streets with the small, medieval homes on either side, the church bells in the distance, the many tea shops offering cakes and scones, the antique shops, was so quintessentially…English, in every way.
We really did mean to eat a charming lunch there; there were so many excellent places to choose from But being honest with ourselves, we were both still full from breakfast, so we elected to head back to the car. Keeping to the country setting, we programmed the GPS to take us on the non-highway route. Hence, we found ourselves on the Pilgram’s Way, which was the same route the pilgrims in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales travelled from London, in reverse.
On the way back, we passed by Bodiam Castle, kicking ourselves since we had left our National Trust passes at home, so we had to contend ourselves with a view and a photo from the road.
We drove home through the magnificent green countryside, beautiful despite the overcast day, and made it home by 2pm.