Day 1 - Heathrow to Sandhurst, Kent


We're here, and it was pretty easy, minus a few complications. First was getting to the airport. Fortunately we'd given ourselves plenty of time because when we got within 1/2 a mile of the long-term parking lot (a few miles from the airport itself), we got stopped at a drawbridge that was just starting to open. Twenty minutes later, we were through—but that would have been stressful if we hadn't allowed plenty of time.

We took the shuttle to the airport and asked to be dropped off at the international terminal—logical, right? We'd flown from this terminal a number of times in the past and assumed it was where every international flight would leave from. Wrong. After a few minutes looking for the United terminal, we asked someone. Turns out United (even international flights) are in Terminal B. The nice woman helping us told us to take the bus, but we'd just spent an eternity on a shuttle through very heavy traffic from terminals A to E (International), so I was reluctant to do that again. We were advised against walking, but walk we did—first to Terminal A, then to B. Took about 20 minutes, and there was some uncertainty along the way (because it wasn't exactly well marked), but we eventually made it.

Okay, enough of the getting to the airport. (Bear in mind that at least some of what I write here is more for our own recollection years from now when we're [more] feeble-minded.)

Flight was easy, and we were both able to sleep at least a few hours. 

Rental car (Hertz) at Heathrow, then onto the very congested M25. Trip down to Sevenoaks was pretty easy once we got past the traffic. Sevenoaks is a "market town," which means, if you're interested that it is "a small town in a rural setting that was given a historic legal right to hold a weekly market," according to Wikipedia. For our purposes, it means that we know it will be a town of a reasonable size with a variety of stores—the kind of place where you could find a sim card for a phone, etc.

The sim card took 4 tries (ee store, Marks and Spencer, Poundland, ee store again, Robert Dyas, and finally WH Smith, the last a bookstore/card shop), but that job was finally done. Stopped for coffee and a quick snack at a coffee shop, then headed a few miles down the road to Knole, a National Trust Property that has been in the Sackville family since the 1600s. Betsy and I were somewhat familiar with this family from having read—on Claire's recommendation—Portrait of a Marriage, a book about Vita Sackville-West's tumultuous relationships with various men and women in the 1920s.

We were pretty tired, and it was only 3 p.m. at this point, but this place woke us up. What an incredible property: 1000 acres, a deer park, walking trails, etc. We were almost content to just sit in the car and stare at the property but decided to do a quick tour of the house. Very glad we did—it's quite the place. It recently had £20 million of restoration/renovation, and it shows. The kept the original horse-hair plaster in this room (with one of the more formal rooms in the background) to reveal the original construction:






















We stayed almost till it closed, then headed to the Airbnb. The place is great—nice views out over fields and hills, lots of sheep. Somewhere beyond that field are 58 wallabies. Yeah, we don't understand it either, but they're out there. 

This post is a day late, so I'm wrapping it up here so I can get started on Day 2. 

Below: stained glass and the Orangery at Knole





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