… And the children drank lemonade. And the morning lasted all day. All day.
After an extremely long journey from Edinburgh, we finally landed in Whitstable, on the seaside in Kent, for several days of peace and quiet … and oysters.
If you’re an oyster connoisseur, visiting the north-east coast of Kent is a true Mecca. The oyster beds are just next to the Thames Estuary (where the River Thames meets the North Sea). The seaside has signs old and new of its deep connection with oyster cultivation. As a main component of the Victorian diet, oysters were favored for their cheap cost and high nutritional value. In the 1850s the town was sending as many as 80 million oysters a year to Billingsgate fish market in London.
Josh and I had previously visited Whitstable when we lived in London so we were very excited to head back. We booked a small house, called Bexley Cottage, that was centrally located and super cute.
The high street in Whitstable is called Harbour Street and has everything one could desire. Grain and Hearth for the most delicious sourdough and the largest pain au chocolat. Hubbard’s Bakery for Xavier’s favorite jam doughnuts. The Staines farm shop for endless punnets of British strawberries and cherries. I think Alexander likely polished off a punnet of strawberries a day for nine straight days. The Cheese Box for British goat cheddar. And Frank for a really cool wooden sling shot that we just had to purchase in order to sling rocks into the ocean at top speed.
I spent the week remote working but was able to spend mornings with the boys, exploring the town. We cycled the coastal path from Whitstable to Herne Bay, went crabbing and swimming, and continued our rock skipping journey on British waters.
The boys took a day trip to Canterbury to see the new Thor movie and went bowling in a very 1960’s era bowling alley where they also had an air hockey tournament.
We celebrated my 47th birthday with a drink at The Old Neptune, a classic pub on the beach known as Neppy to the locals. Film buffs and Peter O’Toole fans will have seen the pub and town featured prominently in Venus, which earned him his eighth (and last) Oscar nomination for best actor. Then we had dinner at the Whitstable Oyster Company, a restaurant we visited many times over the years and the place where two-year old Xavier actually once ate oysters. I wish he were as culinarily adventurous now as he was then. Dinner was devine — oysters, champagne, dover sole. A true celebration.
We really enjoyed our lazy, hazy crazy days on the English seaside. Next we’re off to Dover for a ferry trip to Calais and to spend a few weeks in France.
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