Jack in The Green - Mayday Bank Holiday

I realised we never put these up, so it is out of chronological order.
For the 1st May bank holiday we went for a camping adventure to Crowhurst, near Battle and Hastings.
That is my friend Stacey who came too.
As you know, when we go camping, it generally rains.
We took the train to Crowhurst (about an hour and a half from London) and walked to the campsite. I was in gumboots and jeans, Stacey was more optimistic (she hadn't been camping with us before) in shorts and jandals. She also had a bikini for swimming in the sea... as I said, optimistic. This was early Spring. The campsite was lovely, small but perfectly formed. It was set in coppiced woodland, and surrounded by masses of bluebells.
The first day was actually warm and we walked about the countryside, had a delish pub lunch, found an amazing farm shop with bunting for sale (purchased) and generally had a nice day.

Next morning, mattress has died, it is raining. A lot.
This is us in the tent. We decided to go into Hastings to see the Jack in The Green Festival which we heard was on. It is a rite of Spring/Fertility sort of traditional thing. We got to Hastings, bought emergency gumboots and poncho (Stacey) and new camp mattress (Steph) and found out the Jack in the Green is on Monday. So, now that we were kitted out for the weather we decide to go to Battle, where the Battle of Hastings was fought. We wandered about Battle Abbey and got thoroughly wet. It was still pretty cool though. That is us listening to the audioguide, looking rather wet.
We then spent the next few hours drinking tea, beer and then eating curry while we waited for a break in the weather to go back to the tent.
Of course as the sun went down, the rain stopped, and on our way back to the campsite we found a lady feeding... BADGERS! (Calling out bagder badger badger!!!) and One Eye, the one eyed fox. So that was quite exciting.

Next Day, bank holiday Monday, it wasn't raining, so we headed back to Hastings, got painted green by a passing minstrel, and watched the parade. It was totally awesome - Morris Dancers, crazy huge puppets, loads of people all dressed up as trees, goblin and fairy types, flower goddesses etc etc. It ended up at the castle and each Morris /drumming/traditional dancing troup did a display while we drank cider. Awesome.
Also in Hastings on this day there was a motor cycle convention, so lots of different groups of people wandering around. Quite odd really.
So after a somewhat surreal day of Jack in the Green and taking down our damp tents, we headed back to London. Lots of fun, despite the RAIN.

Countryside walks in Kent

Chartwell


Outdoor Living


Chartwell Kitchen Garden

Lisboa and Sintra, Portugal

pastel de nata




Belem
Belem
Castelo dos Mouros
Castelo dos Mouros
Sintra views
Quinta da Regaleira
Quinta da Regaleira
Lisboa Castle
Port!



Yes! The Summer holidays are here! These few posts may not end up in strict chronological order as I am just doing them as I feel like it....

We shot off to Lisbon for 6 days at the end of July and spent a day wandering in 37 degrees heat, before escaping to Sintra, where it was slightly cooler.
Lisbon is a cool city, lots of tiles on every building, a castle on the hill, museums, views, art galleries, etc etc etc....It is very hilly which means there are amazing views every where. We went up to the castle in an old school yellow tram and wandered about the castle ruins. We stayed in a lovely hostel with amazing breakfasts and freshly squeezed orange juice.
The next day we took the train to Sintra, which is about half an hour from Lisbon. Sintra is a World Heritage site and the old town is all cobbled alleys and tiled roofs. We had been told to go and visit Quinta da Regaleira, which is a sort of Romantic palace and grounds, designed by an Opera set designer in the 1800s. It is a very Pan's Labyrinth style place, all grottoes, tunnels, caves and towers to explore. It is on a hill side so you can go through a tunnel at ground level, climb up a well and emerge at ground level again. The vegetation was lush and it had amazing views of the castles further up the hillsides.
The next day we were waiting for a bus to take us to Monserrate Palace, and the bus arrived going up to the Castelo dos Mouros. We weren't going to visit, since we had already been to castle ruins in Lisbon, but we jumped on the bus at the last minute. Wow, it was so amazing. There has been a castle here since the 7th Century, when the Moors arrived from North Africa. It was on the top of a hill/mountain- amazing views of the area, all the way to the ocean. You could walk all along the armaments, through the forest which has been slowly reclaiming the area. We walked back down to the Old Town through the forest and saw fountains and churches and a crazy park with strange fibreglass creatures all through it, and a rollerskate lesson going on with Michael Jackson playing in the background.
Next day it was back to Lisbon, where we headed to Belem, which is near the mouth of the river. Belem was a really nice place for wandering around. Lots of things to look at, including a great modern art gallery - which we retreated into to escape the heat - monuments and places.
In Portugal we drank Port, we saw Cork Oaks, and we ate about 5000 pastel de nata, custard tarts. I don't know what they do to the custard but they are YUM.
On our last day we went on a bit of a wild goose chase to see this aqueduct which looked and sounded like it would be really cool. Eventually we found it, but it was basically over a busy motorway (so not as picturesque as I imagined. ) And the museum part was closed! So that was kind of funny. Never mind, we found a great vintage store/cafe, and an amazing lunch and ate some more custard tarts before heading back to London.