Honeymoon, England I

After a quick flight from Tampere, Finland, we drove from just north of London down to the coast. Deal, England is a great, old town about 15-20 min. from Dover (yes, of the "White Cliffs of Dover" fame).

We were able to stay in a friend of ours' vacation house in Deal. We knew it would be pretty nice, but we had no idea what we were in for. Here is the door which provides the name for our little blog, Two Capstan Row.

When we walked in, our jaws hit the floor. This is what we saw on the first floor (there were four). This is the dining room.

This is the amazing kitchen that we cooked in all week. Just to the right is a french door leading to a small garden/courtyard.

One the second floor was this sitting room and one of the bathrooms.

This is the bedroom we chose. It has a great view of the ocean and isn't up too many flights of stairs. This floor had another bedroom, and the final floor had another bedroom and an additional bathroom with laundry equipment. It was a great blessing to have such a stress-free and delightful place to stay at on our honeymoon. To top it off, our wonderful friend, Cyndy, had a beautiful card with a nice bit of "mad money" in it for a good celebratory meal. And, if that wasn't enough, there was a very nice bottle of champagne in the fridge with (literally) our name on it.

Those foodies who read the blog will, I'm sure, want to hear what kind of meal we had when we weren't spending our own money. Well, we asked the neighbors across the alley for recommendations, but decided it best to simply walk around and find a place on our own. It didn't take long to find 81 Beach Street. It's actually more charming than the website lets on. As we were looking at the menu outside, a man who was sitting at a table full of people started giving us the thumbs up, so we knew the atmosphere would be laid back, even if the menu was top-shelf. For an appetizer, we had a spicy lamb kebab with a two sauces: vinegar/ onion and a creamy cucumber. It was really great. I ordered a local beer (very good bitter English ale) to go with my main course. Speak of here's what we had. Kristina: Steak, cooked medium with "proper" chips as the menu said. The steak was just amazing! Perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned. Sometimes its hard to beat that. The "chips" were also really, really good. Weslie: Slow-braised pork belly with creamy chili sauce. If you're a Southerner, you know that the belly of the pig is where bacon (!) comes from...ughhhh.....it was so, so, so good...I know that both of ours tasted that much better when the bill came, and it hadn't cost us a dime. Thanks Cyndy!