Oh, to be in England; Now that April's there.
March 24, 2015 6:40 PM Subscribe
A wonderful holiday opportunity for Shepherd and I in the UK. But we need some assistance with the sights!
Serene not so rural snowflakes inside.
In January, my SIL--who lives in Billericay with her husband and our nephew--suggested us for house-sitting for a friend of hers in Rainham, Kent. We accepted!
We leave Canada on the 18th of April to London and then catching the train from Victoria to Rainham. Given that we will be there for ten days without a hire car, how easy is it for us to get to, well, anything interesting and historical? (There will be two daytrips to London proper to see family and friends.)
Tell me of the Kent country/cityside where we will be!
(Bonus for literature re: that particular area.)
In January, my SIL--who lives in Billericay with her husband and our nephew--suggested us for house-sitting for a friend of hers in Rainham, Kent. We accepted!
We leave Canada on the 18th of April to London and then catching the train from Victoria to Rainham. Given that we will be there for ten days without a hire car, how easy is it for us to get to, well, anything interesting and historical? (There will be two daytrips to London proper to see family and friends.)
Tell me of the Kent country/cityside where we will be!
(Bonus for literature re: that particular area.)
Best answer: How easy? Pretty easy! Rainham (Kent) station has plenty of trains, by the looks of things. Locally, you can get to Canterbury, Dover, Whitstable or Margate via Faversham, and to Rochester (for its castle) or Chatham (for its historic dockyard) by heading towards London. Further afield, you can get to Brighton or St Albans via St Pancras, or to Cambridge by going to St Pancras then crossing the road to King's Cross.
A quick note about train tickets though, just in case it's helpful. (English trains are expensive by international standards, and it's not always easy to work out which ticket you need if you're buying from a machine.) Day returns are generally much less than twice the single fare, so get those for preference. Off-peak day returns are cheaper than anytime returns, and are typically valid after about 10am. If you're travelling to or via London for the day, it's worth buying the ticket from a person rather than a machine, so that you can ask if there are any evening restrictions; to ease the pressure on commuter trains, some lines disallow off-peak tickets on trains leaving London between 4 and 7 or so. Also, from Rainham there's a specific gotcha: trains to St Pancras, unlike trains to Victoria, are high-speed trains (running at high speed between Ebbsfleet and London) and require payment of a surcharge.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 12:58 AM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
A quick note about train tickets though, just in case it's helpful. (English trains are expensive by international standards, and it's not always easy to work out which ticket you need if you're buying from a machine.) Day returns are generally much less than twice the single fare, so get those for preference. Off-peak day returns are cheaper than anytime returns, and are typically valid after about 10am. If you're travelling to or via London for the day, it's worth buying the ticket from a person rather than a machine, so that you can ask if there are any evening restrictions; to ease the pressure on commuter trains, some lines disallow off-peak tickets on trains leaving London between 4 and 7 or so. Also, from Rainham there's a specific gotcha: trains to St Pancras, unlike trains to Victoria, are high-speed trains (running at high speed between Ebbsfleet and London) and require payment of a surcharge.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 12:58 AM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
You don't need a car.
I live in London and my now-wife lived in Canterbury (which is near-ish Rainham and worth seeing). Neither of us can drive.
It's under an hour to London or three hours to Paris.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 5:47 AM on March 25, 2015
I live in London and my now-wife lived in Canterbury (which is near-ish Rainham and worth seeing). Neither of us can drive.
It's under an hour to London or three hours to Paris.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 5:47 AM on March 25, 2015
Er—on the subject of Kent, Canterbury, and literature, the novel that immediately springs to mind is Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban (which gets mentioned quite a bit around here). Set in Kent, or at least a Kent, and inspired by Hoban's visit to Canterbury cathedral in 1974. It's amazing, but it's not the Kent you'll be visiting. Unless there's a nuclear strike between now and April.
Less post-apocalyptically, Charles Dickens lived at Gad's Hill outside Gravesend, and Great Expectations is partly set there. Gravesend is under half an hour from Rainham by train, though I have to say I've no idea what it's like these days. (Pocahontas is buried there too; at least, she died there and is presumed to be buried nearby.)
You're also very close to the Kent Downs, an 'area of outstanding natural beauty', though a bit hemmed in by motorways at the end near where you're staying. Still, plenty to explore on that website.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 4:47 PM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
Less post-apocalyptically, Charles Dickens lived at Gad's Hill outside Gravesend, and Great Expectations is partly set there. Gravesend is under half an hour from Rainham by train, though I have to say I've no idea what it's like these days. (Pocahontas is buried there too; at least, she died there and is presumed to be buried nearby.)
You're also very close to the Kent Downs, an 'area of outstanding natural beauty', though a bit hemmed in by motorways at the end near where you're staying. Still, plenty to explore on that website.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 4:47 PM on March 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
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In Kent? Canterbury's an obvious place to start. (There's one answer for your literature question.) Dover if you're into cliffs and castles or taking a day trip to Calais. Faversham has heritage going back to the Romans and the Shepherd Neame brewery. (If you're at all beer-inclined, there are hop farms a-plenty.) Whitstable has oysters and seaside charm. Margate has the Turner Contemporary and in spite of Farage-on-Thanet, there's a community of people working hard there to revive the town. Dungeness is more of a stretch, travel-wise, but doable. So are Hastings and Battle (just over into East Sussex).
posted by holgate at 7:24 PM on March 24, 2015 [4 favorites]