Accidentally Friday Street

Well, after all the Triple M last week (and with more to happen this week), I decided actually to have a weekend off for a change.

A couple of weeks back, in fact, it was the day after Gemma's girly night, Gemma, Louisa and I decided it would be a good idea to go hiking. We originally planned to go to the Yorkshire Dales (my absolutely most favourite place) but time got away from us, and we left it a bit late to buy train tickets (they're so much more expensive if you book under a week away). Also, we thought it might be better to go at another time on account of the floods they've been having up there.

Anyway, Gemma and I decided that we would go hiking in leafy Surrey yesterday. Unforunately that meant that Lou couldn't come, because she lives in Leeds, but we will still do the Yorkshire thing at some point.

I subscribe to Walking World, a website that lists a whole heap of walks that you can do in the UK, and even some in France and Spain. Last year Jane, Agnieszka and I went to do a walk in a quaint little village called "Friday Street", but it rained so we kind of just had lunch in the pub and abandoned it (although we did do a drive around some of the villages in the area). I've always wanted to go back, so I suggested it to Gemma, and off we went.

It was a beautiful little walk, 6 miles (which took us a lot longer than it should have because we kept stopping to take pics, but also because I forgot to bring the compass so a couple of times we had to spend a bit of time trying to figure out where to go next). The walk takes place mostly in woodland, and starts in Friday Street, then heads up to a nice little village called Coldharbour (where last year Agnieszka bought a load of cards at the Church because she liked the picture), the highest village in Surrey, and then you go up Leith Hill, Surrey's highest hill, before heading back to Friday Street. We had a fantastic time, and saw some lovely scenery. It was very rewarding to do a 6 mile hike too!

The view from Leith Hill

Gemma at Leith Hill Tower

By the time we finished, we didn't want the day to end. Gemma's parents in law, Gill and Adrian, recently bought an apartment in Canterbury, because Adrian has to work down there quite a bit. They let it out to people and had suggested to Gemma that she could use it over the weekend if she liked. So, seeing as we still had a few hours left of sunlight, and also because the weather really was glorious, we decided on a whim to head off there and stay the night. We had sort of thought we would do that, so we had packed overnight bags just in case.

I have to say this apartment was absolutely amazing! Full of all the mod cons, and minimalist in its decor (but classy), its an easy 5 minute walk from the centre of Canterbury. We dumped our stuff and headed off into town for a bit of a stroll, to find a French market there (probably in honour of the Tour de France which was scheduled to go through there on Sunday). The cathedral was closed, but we enjoyed looking at the exterior and also walking around the streets at the back, where there are some truly quirky examples of architecture. Then we bought some nougat and some fudge at the markets, got some take away Chinese and headed back to the flat for a nice quiet evening in front of the telly. Fell asleep watching the Da Vinci code.

The next day there was no real rush to head off, so woke up leisurely, had breakky and then headed back to London. I had some work to do for school so I spent the afternoon doing that (and then again later on in the evening).

What a wonderful, relaxing weekend!