Day 13 Sissinghurst Castle & Tenterden
So in case you didn't get my note yesterday, the internet is horrible at the place we are staying in here in Tenterden. So I am using the free wifi in a pub down the street. Yes, I said pub. Here the pubs are not just about alcohol. They offer lovely and fancy food too. And since it's Charmaine's birthday today, this is where she picked to eat.
I typed up a word document last night so that I could just cut & paste whenever I did get internet. So here is yesterday's news.
Wednesday, Sept 5, 2018
Today was our first less-than-desirable weather day for the entire time we’ve been traveling. We got out of London just fine and made our way down south to Kent. We stopped at Sissinghurst Castle and Garden, emphasis on the GARDEN. Wowzers. It was so beautiful!! Since tomorrow is Charmaine’s birthday, this was something she really wanted to do and the best time to visit was on our way down south today. It was well worth our time!
My main focus as I took pictures at Sissinghurst today was to try to take pictures of things or viewpoints that I would like to frame. When I get home, there are several things I want to do to spruce things up, or clean up a room, etc. First thing will be to work on our bedroom. So I wanted some frameable art, and therefore my photography will reflect this objective today. 
It was sure fun to see my sister in her element at the gardens. We started at the vegetable garden. (I wasn’t aiming to make frameable art yet, but rather to photo ideas or beautiful success stories in their garden that might help me next season). She had so much fun talking about and pointing out certain things that she’s planted or tried in her own garden over the years. And she is so knowledgeable about everything, too! Each time I thought I knew a certain plant or flower, boy was I wrong. But she knew not only the name of it, but several FYI’s about it, too!
After having a lovely lunch at the Castle Garden, and buying a few gifts in the gift shop, we hit the trail for Tenterden. Tenterden, Kent is where everything began for this trip. I like to say, “All roads lead to Kent.” When Charmaine & I went to Maine and Massachusetts in 2014, we learned a lot about our Tilden and Thomas family lines, along with a few other surnames, and how they all originated from Kent. Particularly the Tildens, who are REALLY well documented and came from Tenterden. I then did quite a bit of research after that, to discover that a good 25+ family lines came over from Kent. So that’s when I suggested that we could save up and go to England, specifically to Kent, and even more specifically to Tenterden, so that we could come see with our own eyes where our ancestors came from. So that’s why I say, “All roads lead to Kent.”
Tenterden is very cute, charming, posh, and has that small town charm that I have seen in many places around the U.S. Everyone seems to know everyone and are very friendly to all. At dinner tonight, we ate at a Turkish restaurant. The servers are all from Turkey and they were super friendly with everyone who came in. Those they knew, they would greet them by name, offer to take their jackets, kiss the lady’s hand, and help them be seated at a table. And they would go around from table to table throughout the dining experience. Which took forever by the way. I guess that’s just how the Turkish do a dinner.
Since we had never eaten Turkish food before, they offered to serve us the “Tenterden Special”, which was a 4 course meal with samplers that the chef would choose for us to represent a proper Turkish meal. We agreed, since it seemed to simplify our order. But it took about 2 hours to get through 3 courses. We got the dessert sampler to go. So there’s cold meze – which had several dips and sauces to eat with pita bread (which was warm and freshly baked!!). Then there’s hot meze – which included a chicken wing for each of us, a meatball, a little pastry with cheese in it, and haloumi cheese, which was a little rectangle shape of cheese that was kind of rubbery in texture but oh so delicious. And then eventually the kebabs came out. And all of this took about 2 hours.
But the servers were so friendly and fun that it didn’t seem so frustrating. We learned that they came from Antalya, Turkey, over on the Mediterranean Sea – and he showed us pictures on Google. It’s gorgeous! I asked the one server, Cihan, (pronounced Chee-han) why he left Turkey and came to England. He said his wife is from England. So then I asked how did they meet. He came over here to work in the family restaurant, and she was a customer. They got to know each other, and now they have been married for 12 years and have 2 children. He was very happy when he spoke of his family. That was so sweet to see.
Well, we have a big day ahead tomorrow and since we need to get up early, I need to go to sleep early.
Here is a PARTIAL photo album from yesterday. Mostly photos from Sissinghurst. But I'm not sure when my other photos will upload to Google photos to share.
So that was yesterday's letter. I will work on something for today as well.
Take care!
Michele
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