by Janis on 22nd December 2020 / 2 comments
A review of our year and here’s to 2021!
I was in two minds whether to write a review of our travels in 2020, considering we barely left our home county of Kent, let alone leaving the UK.
But hey, I thought why not, it means we get to reminisce, have positive thoughts for 2021, and let our minds wander for the planning ahead.
So, although we managed to visit London for a mini-break in January, our road trips and our days out have been around Kent and Sussex.
The lockdown and restricted travel have given us the opportunity to re-visit old posts and create tempting travel prospects closer to home. It’s also allowed Gary time to delve into our Osmo content that we’ve captured over the last few years and convert it into YouTube videos.
Why not Pin it for later?
Old London Town
We never tire of this amazing cityIt appears to have become a bit of a tradition with Gary and I that we head up to London in January for a long weekend. Of course, this is England, and the weather is changeable; however, you can get some beautiful bright days, and there are also fewer people around.
From globes to mallets - a stall in Spitalfields Market
We tend to choose a few districts of London that particularly interest us. As history is a subject that we both love, it’s so easy to find intriguing nuggets of the past and unusual facts about London.
In January 2020, we decided on Spitalfields, Camden and Westminster. And as I am still ticking off the ‘Magnificent Seven’ historic Victorian cemeteries, we also visited Kensal Green Cemetery.
Spitalfields is a fascinating region to visit, today, it is becoming a little gentrified. However, if you look beyond the boutiques and barbers, you’ll soon be immersed in its captivating past.
Elder Street, full of character and charm in Spitalfields
The beautiful Georgian architecture once bustling with French Huguenot silk weavers and the dark narrow lanes which were frequented by Jack the Ripper.
Once you’ve had a rummage around the famous Spitalfields Market, take a few streets east, and you’re in Brick Lane. Famed for its mix of cultures, oh and yes, the endless choice of ‘curry houses’.
Brick Lane
Our next London haunt was Camden Town and Camden Market. It had been years since we had visited Camden and strolled the Regent’s Canal.
Camden Lock Place and railway bridge, Camden Market
Camden has certainly changed over the years, and its market is amazing. Winding through the underground tunnels, with such an eclectic mixture of vintage clothing, unique gifts and plenty of odds and sods.
It’s incredible just by taking a short hop west for a couple of streets, and you’re in exclusive Primrose Hill district.
Colourful houses along Chalcot Crescent, Primrose Hill
Regent’s Park Road, Primrose Hill
Then for a little change of direction and history, we headed to Westminster. Don’t imagine for one moment that this region is all about politics, it has some fascinating tales to tell, from Royalty and suffragettes to heart-wrenching memorials and hangings.
Three-Arched Bridge over King Charles Street, Westminster
Our last stop during our visit to London was to Kensal Green Cemetery. I know this may seem strange visiting a cemetery; however, I find the lives and tales behind so many of London’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ intriguing.
The Anglican Chapel in Kensal Green cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is the last resting place to several historical figures and equally rubs shoulders with the lesser-known man.
Impending lockdown
It was time catch up on our old adventuresMid-March arrived, and the ‘lockdown’ loomed, it was apparent we wouldn’t be travelling anywhere soon.
As we like to keep to a schedule for our website, it was time to be more creative. Also, to start looking at the content and ideas we’d been keeping on the back burner.
There’s more below from our ‘Road Trip Itineraries’ and also our fun ‘Truths & Trivia’ posts.
Homemade Rocky Road
Better still, I didn’t need to come up with an excuse to dig out my Rocky Road recipe. My chocolate eclairs were a bit of flop, but Rocky Road is always a winner.
Day trips from London
Discovering the south east of EnglandWith the imposed overseas travel restrictions and the UK excursions being limited to within our shores, it was time to look at where we would recommend for a day trip from London.
In fact, we came up with quite a few locations. In ‘Part 1’ you’ll see seaside adventures at Margate and Folkestone, the beautiful Art Deco palace at Eltham, the colleges of Oxford and the historic city of Canterbury.
Overlooking the harbour slipway in Folkestone
In ‘Part 2’ of our day trips from London, head off to Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, or discover the code-breakers lair of Bletchley Park.
For a little further south venture to East Sussex and stroll the battlefields from the Battle of Hastings and along the shoreline at Rye unearth the tales of the local smugglers and ne’re-do-wells.
Wooden carved archer on the Battlefield at Battle
Amongst the locations in this post, we visit the historic town of Rochester in Kent, synonymous with Charles Dickens and Rochester’s 12th-century Norman Castle. A coastal hop south to stroll the diverse landscape of Dungeness, catch our YouTube video on Dungeness, you’ll love it.
A view of Norwich Cathedral
Then we head to the county of Norfolk and tour the Royal Palace at Sandringham and visit the historic city of Norwich and its magnificent 900-year-old Cathedral.
Our YouTube Videos
As mentioned above, the lockdown gave us (Gary mainly) the opportunity to dust off our Osmo content and start further developing our YouTube Channel.
We’ve such a mixture of locations, from our African safari adventures in Zimbabwe, our Lakes and Lederhosen road trip around Lake Garda and Bavaria.
To our southeast UK coastal visits and our Christmas fun at the markets in Germany, and plenty more in between.
Have a browse through our YouTube channel and hit the subscribe button, you won’t want to miss Gary’s dulcet tones as we take you on our future journeys.
You may even spot the occasions where Gary catches me out becoming rather lackadaisical on giving 100% to my Steven Spielberg productions.
Kent Road Trips
Exploring our home county of KentDuring the summer months here in the UK, restrictions were easing slightly, so we took the opportunity to venture off on a couple of Kent road trips.
The Sandwich Tug
The first was a scenic coastal road trip around the shores of Kent, UK. Here we chose 11 locations from the kiss-me-quick seaside town of Margate, the quaint, picturesque lanes of Sandwich and visiting ancient castles of Deal, Walmer and Dover.
Then touring on to the up-and-coming colourful harbour town of Folkestone and the lesser-known historic lanes of Hythe.
Boats on the Royal Military Canal
Our next Kent road trip we were weaving amongst the North Downs, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Along this route, we toured delightful country villages and historic market towns and skipped on and off the Pilgrims Way.
Picturesque cottage with St. Mary’s Church beyond in Chilham
There’s an abundance of heritage and history in these half-timbered villages from visiting Royalty in Charing, hop-picking around Faversham and picture-postcard filming locations like Chilham.
We often drive past some of these locations, and it isn’t until you jump out and scratch the surface that you realise how much there is to visit on your doorstep.
Charing village green, with Archbishops Palace beyond
Map, guides and more
When you’re nurturing the seed of a road trip, plotting your destinations across a paper map just brings the adventure to life. Whether it’s the touchy-feely aspect of the map or the rustling sound of mastering the art of origami while trying to fold it away, I’m not too sure. Nonetheless, the good old Ordnance Survey guys and gals always come up trumps.
Take a look at the vast array of maps you can choose from.
A few more days out in the South East
Seaside fun at Ramsgate and HastingsA few days prior to the end of 2019, we squeezed in a visit to the coastal Royal Harbour town of Ramsgate.
It was from here that the ‘Little Ships’ set sail to the Dunkirk evacuations during Operation Dynamo in 1940.
Ramsgate is full of nautical history, it was given the status of Cinque Port in 1483 and became a Limb of Sandwich.
Ramsgate Marina
Another of our days out was to the seaside and this time Hastings in East Sussex. It’s been years since I last visited Hastings and the fish and chips didn’t disappoint.
Neither did the charming ancient lanes, the Twittens, Rock-a-Nore and the Stade. The black weather-boarded net sheds are so synonymous with Hastings they have become a bit of an attraction in their own.
Hastings beach and seafront
One of the market towns that we visited during our North Downs road trip was to the medieval town of Faversham. Home of Britain’s oldest brewer since 1698.
Oyster Bay House, Faversham
Faversham is a charming Kent town, full of half-timbered dwellings a magnificent arched Guildhall and Faversham Creek. One of the loveliest spots here is Standard Quay lined with old sailing barges, Victorian warehouses and granaries.
This quay is now home to local food producers, antique shops and cafés.
If you're intrigued by Kent's weird and wonderful history, or all unusual stories around the county, then take a peek at "Kent's Strangest Tales".
You won't be able to put it down, you can pick it up for your Kindle or in good old paperback.
It’s good to talk!
Our road trip Itineraries
Are you planning a road trip to Croatia or the Netherlands?2020 has also allowed us more time to compile some of road trip itineraries. Ohh and there are plenty more to come, as road trips are always our favourite type of adventure.
Plitvice Lakes Natural Park
A couple of years ago we decided to tour Croatia from north to south for two weeks. Most people would have flown into Croatia and hired a car, oh no, not us. We decided to embark on this road trip from the UK.
The small picturesque port of Fosa in Zadar, Croatia
There are plenty of hints and tips in our Croatian road trip itinerary. Driving through France, Austria, Slovenia, the length of Croatia (and back) and a day trip to Bosnia Herzegovina.
If you've yet to discover the delights of Croatia you're in for a treat. While planning our road trip, I used the DK Eyewitness books. I find them extremely informative, easy to follow and the pictures and maps tempt you into discovering more.
We used a previous version of this book to plan our north to south Croatian road trip, now you can grab the revised copy.
Our next itinerary was a Cotswolds road trip, we also included Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon and a few stops in between.
A watermill in the Cotswolds
This quintessential English road trip was only over five nights. However, we fitted so much in, including a visit to Henley-on-Thames, seven Cotswold villages, the British Motor Museum and Bletchley Park.
There are so many beautiful regions to discover around the UK. From the delightful Kent coast in the southeast to the stunning Highlands of Scotland in the north. The UK is bursting with historical landmarks, castles and palaces.
Grab a copy of the latest DK Eyewitness guide to ensure you don't miss all those incredible sights.
Heading across the English Channel and we have spring Dutch road trip itinerary. This venture was planned for 9-days, and we visited the magnificent Keukenhof Gardens, Haarlem, Alkmaar and Utrecht.
Of course, no Dutch road trip would be the same if you didn’t seek out the impressive, grand windmills and snaking waterways.
Kinderdijk in the Netherlands
Keep an eye out for the four Dutch harbour towns that we visit, including Hoorn, Edam, Volendam and Monnickendam.
If you're thinking of heading of to the land of tulips and cheese, then grab this DK Eyewitness guide to help with your planning.
I find them extremely informative, easy to follow and the pictures and maps tempt you into discovering more.
Last, but by no means least of 2020 was out itinerary for a German Christmas road trip. Our plans to visit Germany at Christmas were thrown out of the window this year. However, for you to start planning for 2021, we have put together an 8-day German Christmas Market itinerary.
The Rathaus in Bremen,'s Marktplatz
Admittedly you can choose to visit just a couple but hopping from one location to another filling up your car with delicious treats along the way, is fun.
I love nothing more than planning a trip and so often I use the DK Eyewitness books. I find them extremely informative, easy to follow and the pictures and maps tempt you into discovering more.
We used a previous version of this book to plan our Germany road trips, now you can grab the revised copy.
See what we discovered when we headed to Düsseldorf, Bremen, Hamburg and Cologne in northwestern Germany.
Our fun post on ‘Truths and Trivia
A lighthearted look into intriguing locationsFor a little bit of amusing entertainment, we write some posts under the heading ‘Truths and Trivia’. It’s our way of bringing some lightheartedness to a destination, with fun facts that you may or may not already know.
The lighthouse at Verzy in the Champagne Region
And with 2020 being the year that cheerfulness is needed, we decided to create a post for Seville, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Iceland, Dubrovnik, the Champagne region of France, Florence and Tallinn. As it is the festive time of year a German Christmas Market Truths and Trivia.
So that's it for 2020
It has been an extraordinary old year, and fingers crossed for 2021. Let’s hope we can squeeze in some more overseas road trip adventures.
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Great annual review, Janis. You continue to inspire me to visit places in South East England I’ve not been to before. I think Faversham and Ramsgate will be next on our list.
Looks like you and Gary made the best of this sorry excuse of a year.
Thanks Stefan, we did try and get out and out about when we could, even if we didn’t venture too far. They are two great places to visit, Ramsgate’s main town centre still requires a bit of TLC. However, there are so many historic streets to stroll all-around and the marina is fantastic.
Faversham has so many gems, especially around the market square and the stroll down Abbey Street to Standard Quay.
Enjoy.