Easter Tour: Sunday ride to Sandwich and Herne Bay

Happy Easter!  At breakfast we found that the Easter Bunny had left us a present of chocolate eggs. Neil was extra lucky, as the Easter Chicken had left him an extra present on his bike.  We were delayed a few minutes while Neil cleaned it off.

Steve was our leader today and we headed east from Canterbury towards Sandwich, a lovely old town near the coast where not much happens, although we didn't actually see the sea till later.  One of the highlights is a Sandwich library, possibly the only one in the world.  There's also a Sandwich museum.  In contrast to yesterday, there was only one hill out of Canterbury before eighteen mules of (more or less) gentle downhill following the river Stour to the coast.

Sandwich

Elevenses was a piece of cake, at A Piece Of Cake, a tearoom in Sandwich. Neil had a sandwich in Sandwich, just for the experience.

Setting off round the coast we soon encountered the White Cliffs of Ramsgate, rather smaller than the Dover ones, before heading to lunch at The Sun Inn at St Nicholas at Wade.  We relaxed in the sun at The Sun eating Sandwiches, then set off for Herne Bay.  I don't know if there are many cars in Kent but we didn't see many all day, to our great pleasure.

The White Cliffs of Ramsgate

Outside The Sun

After a look at the sea again from a viewpoint above Herne Bay, Steve (Hillier) took over from Steve (Gordon) as leader and led us from Herne Bay to Herne, where Steve's brother runs a micro-pub, The Butcher's Arms, basically a one small room where eight people could enjoy a cosy evening.  It already had about eight  people in  it when the twenty-plus of us arrived, so it was quite intimate. Steve H organised several pitchers of beer and complimentary ice lollies were produced from somewhere.  It was a real experience: drinking outside is not allowed so we became very friendly with the locals quite quickly.

Pete outside the micro-pub

Pete inside the micro-pub

The pitchers were of the automatically refilling type, so it took quite a long while before we were able to leave for another relaxed ride back and through the centre of Canterbury and home.

Total miles: 45, with 4 hours riding and 4 hours eating and drinking.  Thank you Steve(s) for a memorable day out and a great finale to a most enjoyable Easter Tour.