Rye

On Sunday morning, we woke up in our B&B, us asleep in our double room on the second floor, the kids in their own twin room on the third floor, relieved that they’d made it through the night without them calling out and waking all the other guests!  We enjoyed the home made breakfast and then hopped in the car and headed off to Rye.Rye is another fascinating port town — the port silted up back in the 16C, so the town sits on a hill which used to be an island, some 12 miles from the actual sea.  There are tidal rivers that run around the village however and some boat owners still keep boats there, although as you can see, sailing them out again would require some knowledge of tides and a bit of planning!

Rye is famous for it’s cobbled streets and according to the tourist brochure was called “the best small town in Britain” by Getaway in Australia.

It’s also full of lots of old tudor style houses and at times I wondered what the locals make of all the tourists tramping through their streets, although I guess many of them make a living off the trade.

From the Ypres Tower, a remaining part of the old wall, you get a great view over the marsh which used to be the sea.

The kids had great fun with these stocks, teasing each other with Christmas Candy canes.

Ella learnt all about Tudor buildings in school and is in equal parts fascinated and revolted by them as apparently one of the ingredients in lime they used in the walls was horse dung. Basically she enjoys looking at them, but cringes if we ever go inside one!

Rye is certianly worth a visit if you get to that part of England.