A Bit Of Kentish Culture

As we had one of The Wife’s friends staying with us for some of the Easter weekend, we decided to head down into Rochester for a bit of touristy sight-seeing and culture.

Considering we live just down the road (well, 15 minutes away) we only really go to Rochester for dinner (it has one of The Wife’s favourite Italian restaurants) or for my football team’s end of season drinks and curry, so it was nice to just wander around the historic town for once. And we had good weather for once so that was nice.

We started off in the grounds of the castle, treating ourselves to an ice-cream as it was so hot, and taking in the view along the river. We then headed into the cathedral and stopped to listen to a visiting choir that were practicing for an upcoming event.

Next up was a walk down the high street. There was the inevitable stop into the fudge shop for The Wife, and our friend went into some antique and vintage clothes shops looking for some hidden gems. She didn’t find any!

Once we’d exhausted all our options without spending lots of money on food and drink we left Rochester and drove over to Fort Amherst in Chatham. The fort was built in the middle of the 18th century to protect the area (mainly the dockyard) against a French invasion. The fort was enhanced again during the American Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

Now it is a visitor attraction that regularly holds events throughout the year, including a ghostly Halloween event and today there had been one such event on but as we’d arrived quite late it had all finished. It looked like there had been battle reenactments as there were still some people milling around dressed up in old army uniforms.

Fort Amherst offers more splendid views down the River Medway towards Rochester and we could even make out our old schools in the distance too! (The Wife and I had gone to schools that were about a quarter of a mile apart!).

Having take in the views and having decided not to walk along the Great Lines (maybe some other time) with weary legs, we strolled back to the car, all cultured out and headed home.