I won’t lie…I love the snow so you can imagine the high pitch screams of joy that G awoke to when I realised it had snowed overnight during our mini break to Kent. As we made our way through Kent to East Sussex, the snow was settling and turning it into a beautiful winter wonderland unfortunately the snow doesn’t really settle in Rye but we still enjoyed our snowy day out to Rye…albeit my fingers are still a bit frosty.
Parking the car, we went for a wander around the town…G’s mum has wanted to visit Rye for years as it’s always popping up on those day time antique tv shows (yes I love them as well!) and this was my second visit to Rye as it’s a rather easy day trip from London on the train which I had done in the past many a moon ago.
G’s mum knows I love a good door photo…so she found me a door…bless her little cotton socks!
The high street is a tad tight with cars and little boutique shops which are good for shopping (however it did feel a lot more commercial on this visit unfortunately)…
…it didn’t stop us window shopping (my frugal friday spreadsheet has curbed my shopping like no ones business!)…
…G’s mum said this was her dream house so of course we peered through the window to have a snoop inside (best thing about the winter months, it’s good for snooping inside other peoples houses when they have the lights on!)…you can even see the old man reading his newspaper in the living room…
…I found myself another door to photograph which was part of a delightful wobbly house…
…we pondered about having a cup of tea to warm up our frosty fingers…
…but decided to descend Mermaid Street aka England’s most photogenic street!
Mermaid Street is very pretty…full of dainty buildings…
…wobbly buildings…
…little houses with two front doors..one for Arthur and one for Martha…
…another rather fetching door or three which I’m sure would be more photogenic during the summer months…
…and a rather old wobbly pub called The Mermaid Inn with gorgeous stained glass windows (built in 1420)…
…and flower boxes outside full of brightly coloured cyclamens which offered a pop of winter colour….
…someone offered a really good piece of advice…
…not sure why you want to stick feathers up your bottom…obviously some things tickle other peoples bottoms more than others.
So Mermaid Street is rather picture perfect and photogenic to boot but we had the cutest experience ever of seeing a little man who lived in one of the houses trying to clean the street with his little brush with no bristles and a watering can while it was snowing…we stood and watched him go about his business…he had also left his front door wide open so we got a little peek inside as we walked past…he was such a little character and really made our day with his Mermaid Street shenanigans.
^^He really did add a huge dose of personality to the street and I just wanted to give him a cuddle but you know this is England and cuddling is frowned upon!
After our jolly and chilly walk around Rye where it was snowing but not settling…just think how wonderful it would have looked it if the snow had settled…it was time for a hot chocolate and a slice of gluten free cake to warm up our frosty fingers…we found G tucked up inside Hayden’s enjoying a cup of coffee…
…after the rather delicious gluten free cake and scone the day before in Chilham…things fell a bit short at Hayden’s on the gluten free cake front…
…it was lemon drizzle which was fine, I do love a grand ol’ piece of lemon drizzle cake however it had so much sugar in it that it made my teeth feel funny…
…and G’s mum found clumps of sugar inside her cake…someone needs to put a bit more elbow grease into mixing everything together before chucking the cake in the oven! It wasn’t bad overall but it wasn’t good either. The hot chocolate wasn’t bad.
Travel Tips for a Day Trip to Rye, East Sussex
- Rye is an easy day trip via train ex London and why not check out this post on other easy peasy day trips from London by train.
- If you are arriving by car then there are a number of car parks dotted around the town, we were lucky enough to find parking on the main street for our visit
- There are a number of little tea shops that offer gluten free food; we headed to Hayden’s which was okay but I wouldn’t return. The Cobbles Tea Room also has gluten free options available but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to try.
- Rye has a number of little antique shops to rummage through if you love a bit of bargain hunting
- The town is very popular during the summer weekends so you need to time your visit wisely unless you like rambling through towns with every Tom, Dick and Harry…we thought Saturday during February was perfect for our Day Trip to Rye.
- Another cute little spot in East Sussex to visit is Alfriston…the home of the first National Trust property in England
- Flat Shoes are required as Mermaid Street is extremely wonky to walk up!
xx
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