Yesterday was another family day in Tunbridge Wells.

The weather wasn't the fantastic weather we have experienced to date. It was overcast most of the day but still hovering around 20C. At 10pm it was beginning to rain.

We went into the town of Tunbridge Wells, also known as Royal Tunbridge Wells, because Princess Victoria, before she became Queen, liked to come here. Our first task was to find a parking building and preferrably somewhere near a Post Office. After a circuit or two, we found a parking spot near the train station. As it was a Pay and Display, it was a challenge to find a parking meter that worked. I had to go to three different floors, before I found one to take my money. If you pay by cash you get charged more than if you pay using your mobile phone. It's User Pays to get someone to come and clear the parking meter.

We had a few packages to ship to NZ and all were OK except for one which had to be emptied of a couple of items to bring it under the magic 2kg for shipment home at economy rate. We took up our own little section of the corner dairy/post office and armed with packing tape and a pen, packed the items. Some old biddy glowered at as as she made a dive for the newspapers that we had covered up. She never spoke though.

Having rid ourselves of those few kilos, we walked up to the famous Pantiles. These are a series of shops that are dated around 1700 to 1800. All quaint and wobbly and well maintained but looking for the high end customer. As a result a few are empty.

The downturn does appear to have hit the town a little. The High Street, which is one of the main streets, has a high number of charity shops in it selling low priced recycyled items. Mind you, there was a jeweller there whose watches ranged from UKP1,000 up, with all the expensive names like Cartier and Rolex etc. I wonder how many of those are sold in a week.

We went around to my Aunt Margaret's apartment. She came to England many years ago and married Paul and they have been living in their Tunbridge Wells apartment for 17 years. We had a great time chatting and followed that up with a very pleasant meal at a downtown pub, and then more chatting. It really was great to catch up with them, as Lynette had seen them in 2000 and I can't recall when I had last seen them, sometime ago in NZ on one of their trips down under.

Today the weather has been mild, around 20C, with an overcast haze all day.

We went to Chertsey to see a ham radio shop and found the place very pleasant. We found the shop and nearby parking without any difficulty. The main street had plenty of second hand charity shops but also most other shops that you need. One of the interesting things in the street was an auction house. It was like an old shop where the top floor was set up to auction goods. (The lower floor was set up to register bidders and take money off you.)

Upstairs there was a large area, with about 600 square feet (60 square metres) of items for sale. A lot were suitcases full of stuff and bags of unknown content. The auctioneer sat at an elevated desk and the item being sold was displayed on a large LCD monitor. At first I thought it was internet based, but I'm sure you had to be in the building to bid. The prices for lots seemed pretty low. I never saw anything go over 50 pounds (NZ$100). It was just like being at the “Baggage Wars” that one sees on TV.

We decided to have an easy day and went back to the room to relax before we have the long drive through Germany in two days time. On the way back we picked up some cherries and “doughnut” peaches, from a layby on the side of the road. The peaches are very thin but were very pleasant to eat.

The Pantiles.  The band stand is where Shakespearean plays were presented until the heckling of alcohol fuelled yokels caused them to be shut down.

Above and below - The Pantiles.

We just can't get away from Fullers.  Here they brew beer not run a ferry company.

A Chertsey St.  A van parked on the double yellow (No Parking) line on the left, a parked car on the right, and a rubbish collection truck caused quite a backlog of traffic.

Salomons

Above and Below - Ducks and ponds at Salomons.

Doughnut Peaches.  They are the same height as the cherry beside them.