December 2024. London. The now weekly trek back from Rye to Waterbeach takes the same time by rail as car, cause my Mum the same amount of worry, and allows me to get a London tick or two. But not today (well, last Monday, actually), as I caught the first off-peak train from Rye and… Continue reading BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE
Author: retiredmartin
Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.
HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No.72 – THE CHANNEL ISLANDS
A belated return to the celebrated “Half A Dozen Pubs” series, an early Christmas present. I’ve completed my Christmas present shopping of course; on 1 January, in fact, same as in the last 30 years. The in-laws have been touting a trip to the Channel Islands next year, and if I didn’t have the concern… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No.72 – THE CHANNEL ISLANDS
A WINTER IN RYE
December 2024. Rye Harbour. Mrs RM is staying close to her own parents down south while I do similar in Cambridge. The last year has seen four attempted overseas trips cancelled due to family dramas and we’ve resigned in our ambitions for now. She’s had had the caravan on let for most of the year… Continue reading A WINTER IN RYE
ALL THE PUBS IN RAMSGATE No. 3 – THE RED LION
November 2024. Ramsgate. In for a penny… You can’t come to Ramsgate and not head down King Street to the High Street, the heart of Ramsgate and the embodiment of its “rough diamond” status. This 2020 pic, one of my favourites, capture the town’s charm perfectly. Where King St, High St and the road to… Continue reading ALL THE PUBS IN RAMSGATE No. 3 – THE RED LION
ALL THE PUBS IN RAMSGATE No. 2 – MONTEFIORE ARMS
November 2024. Ramsgate. And the hits just keep on coming. You can’t really justify going all the way from Rye to Ramsgate for a lone pint, and the Montefiore, ticked a decade ago, is one of those pubs I want to go back to on every return to this great town. Tucked a few yards… Continue reading ALL THE PUBS IN RAMSGATE No. 2 – MONTEFIORE ARMS
ALL THE PUBS IN RAMSGATE. No. 1 – THE HONEYSUCKLE INN
November 2024. Ramsgate. Another GBG year, another new Guide pub for Remarkable Ramsgate. “You’re joking – not another one!” says Brenda Mrs RM, who decides an afternoon in the caravan drinking discounted North Brewing cans beats Ramsgate in the rain. But I love Ramsgate, so much I’ve decided to start a mini-series on the pubs,… Continue reading ALL THE PUBS IN RAMSGATE. No. 1 – THE HONEYSUCKLE INN
DUNGENESS
November 2024. Dungeness. Plenty of undiscovered Kent and Sussex coast to explore from the base of Mrs RM’s Rye caravan; never been to Lydd. And oddly, until Saturday we’d failed to make it to Dungeness, which holds a strange place in the English psyche due to remoteness, the rolling (?) marsh, a desolate but beautiful… Continue reading DUNGENESS
HOP FUZZ, HYTHE BUZZ
November 2024. West Hythe. Kent. Always satisfying to tick a rural Kent pub before the plague, pestilence and damnation about to be inflicted on us according to the Daily Mail. And what a gorgeous, crisp Autumn day to visit a microbrewery tap said no-one ever. A tap by the river canal, in what is technically… Continue reading HOP FUZZ, HYTHE BUZZ
A TRIBUTE TO, AND IN, DENTON’S JACKDAW
November 2024. Denton. Kent. A few days down in Rye, perfect for a slow mop-up of Kent GBG entries, which, by law, MUST include one in Ramsgate and one is a remote Downs village only Kentish Paul and Pauline have heard of. This year that village is Denton, as far removed from its namesake in… Continue reading A TRIBUTE TO, AND IN, DENTON’S JACKDAW
THE SHIP REDEEMED
November 2024. Rye. A lunchtime crawl in Rye timed to end just before the 14:53 back to the harbour; I’d wanted to introduce Mrs RM to the singular joys of the Hope Anchor hotel, but signs saying “NO HARVEY’S” and “NO GUINNESS” rather put off even the least fussy drinkers (us). So we headed down… Continue reading THE SHIP REDEEMED
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