One of the things that I miss the most about life before becoming a mum is the little trips away we used to do on a regular basis, so we thought it would be nice to squeeze in a small trip before Christmas. As we’d not both left Max overnight before we wanted to limit it to one night, so decided to head to Rye in Kent - an old town that we’ve stayed in before. Not too far away, and since we’d been before, not too much pressure on fitting everything in with limited time. As luck would have it, Max came down with a nasty cold and went from a nice and easy babysitting prospect, to very clingy, snotty, and up many times in the night, which did nothing for my confidence in leaving him. But he seemed to improve slightly just before we went, and my lovely parents reassured us that they would be fine with him.

Rye is a gorgeous quintessentially ‘old English’ town - all cobbled streets, antique shops, and picture postcard houses. Although it’s fair to say we didn’t have the weather on our side on this visit, the town still had that cute feel. The entrance to the town is an ancient stone fortress gate dating back to 1329.

 

 

Mermaid Street is one of the oldest and most famous streets in Britain: steep cobbles lead down to the harbour with old Grade II listed buildings flanking each side. Although we didn’t visit on this occasion, we’ve been to The Mermaid Inn before - a great pub, dark and moody, with a roaring fire and reportedly a ghost to boot!

I loved the festive displays - people in Rye have really made the effort in their windows for Christmas! Check out this Elf themed window which I loved.

 

 

Rye is crammed full of antique and brick-a-brac shops, so we had a good mooch around. I loved these Hogwarts boxes and old vintage signs.

We stayed at The George in Rye - a luxury boutique hotel that we’d visited in the past and loved. As we were only having the one night and it’s a rare occasion these days, we splurged on a Junior Suite, and what a treat it was! Set away from the main building in a little courtyard, the room felt really private and had the most amazing huge bed which was so comfy. The added luxury was found when you headed downstairs (our hotel room had stairs!) to find the enormous bathroom, complete with such a treat of a bath! You can bet that the first thing I did on checking in was have a bubble bath so hot I came out lobster red.

We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant, The Grill, which I would recommend highly. It has a lovely cosy feel, with dimmed lighting and soft cushions strewn everywhere. The bench seating meant that we took the unusual choice to sit next to each other which was lovely! I enjoyed the mussels to start which included some of the biggest, juiciest mussels I’ve tasted, and then we shared the Chateaubriand with grilled mushrooms and tomatoes, béarnaise sauce and chips for our main.

Unfortunately, I came down with a nasty ear infection overnight, which meant that I missed the hotel breakfast the next morning (always my favourite part of staying away!) and we skipped our planned trip to Camber Sands in favour of a visit to the NHS Walk In Centre to pick up some antibiotics. One for another time perhaps!