Churchill’s Chartwell House

Before we move on to today’s adventures, a big thank you to our amazing hosts Mary and Simon who invited us to their garden last evening for drinks. Almost 5 hours and 3 bottles of wine later we said good night. Peter and I have been in a lot of Airbnb flats (Mary says it’s 46) and we’ve never had hosts as gracious as Mary and Simon. We feel like they’re friends now and we’re so sorry to leave today. But, we’ve already made plans to come back next year before heading to South Africa in May. What a wonderful experience this was!!

We had our first adventure with the car today. The car was fine and I stayed on the correct side of the road, but Gracie (our GPS) went a little crazy on us. We were heading to Churchill’s home, Chartwell, from Canterbury and it should have taken a little over an hour. But even though we followed Gracie’s directions, we kept going around in circles. After about 1 hour and 45 minutes we finally made it. Not sure what was wrong with her but she straightened herself out by the time we moved on to Brighton.

It turns out that it would have been better to visit Chartwell on our way to Canterbury rather than after. We went so far north we were only 20 miles south of London. Oh well….best laid plans.

As a gigantic Churchill fan, Peter has been looking forward to today’s visit and he was not disappointed. Winston and his wife, Clementine, bought the home in 1922 and lived there for the next 40 years until Winston’s death in 1965.

While we waited about 40 minutes for our timed ticket entry to the house, we wandered the grounds and visited Churchill’s studio. He was a prolific painter having painted over 500 pieces. Over 200 of them are at the house and/or studio.

Once in the house we went on a self-guided tour of all three floors. Two of the guest rooms have been converted into exhibition rooms filled with awards, gifts and uniforms.

After a light lunch at the Café, we decided we didn’t have enough time to visit the 1066 Battle of Hastings Museum so we headed to our new flat near Brighton instead. We’re staying in a cute little 2-room flat with a view of the English Channel. It’s small but is enough to meet our needs.

After settling in, we took a little walk along the cliff. After stopping for a few groceries, we had a little snack and drinks on our deck before dinner.

Tomorrow we plan to take the bus and hang out for the day in Brighton Beach. The weather is supposed to be nice so we’re looking forward to a relaxing day.