June 8th. Farnham & Alice Holt forest

Some of our best sightseeing experiences were in the South so in the morning we headed out to Farnham to see the ruins of the Waverley abbey. The weather was perfect. It was amazing how quickly the summer had some and everything around had started to bloom.

The ruins alongside a small river with yellow water lilies were very scenic. It was also great that there was no one around for some time so we took our time enjoying the scenery. After the abbey, we drove up a few miles to Farnham to see the castle keep.

It was built around the same time as the abbey and hardly anything had remained besides the walls but in its heyday some 800 years ago the castle has a well tower that was built in the center of the keep. It had the walls 3 meter thick that ran into the base of the castle below - some distance below the ground level and the castle was built on a hill. Pretty impressive feat that probably made it one of the most capable castles in the area for withstanding a siege.

We caught lunch in, as Georgia calls is, "very posh" Farnham. It is clearly a very upscale area - both from the look of local real estate office listings that do not feature anything bellow a few million pounds and Waitrose supermarket, hidden away in a nook with similar fine establishments.

We had stopped at the Maison Blanc - highly recommended for lunch and desert. Isabella downed her red lentil soup with surprising alacrity. I had eggs, cheese, and smoked salmon that arrived in a very hot clay bowl - the eggs were still raw when they brought it out. Would be cool to try it at home.

After lunch we drove a bit more down South to Alice Holt forest. It was an interesting experience. The "forest" was highly developed with crowds of people walking and cycling around myriad of roads and trails. We ventured into the "wild part" only to emerge, to Isabella's relief back on the trail in about 100 meters. They did have some of the nicest most interesting playgrounds I've ever seen.

We drove back home after a while... After dinner we sat downstairs on the boardwalk and watched the sunset and swans floating around. Kids did some drawing. It was a perfect way to end the weekend. We do miss our friends and are looking forward to seeing them again soon.     

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