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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask you to help me recall a memory

185 replies

user1471451355 · 17/09/2016 04:04

Hi all! Posting here for traffic. Sorry my username isn't a bit more scintillating.
I'm from the States, but back in 2004 my parents and I spent some time in and around London. We stayed at the most lovely bed and breakfast, and I would dearly love to find it online and show pictures to my DH, but neither of my parents seem to be able to remember so much as the name of the area we were in. I was only about ten years old, but I have some of the happiest memories of that trip.

Here is what I do remember! It was a very large, very old house. At least it seemed very old to me as a child, though I do seem to remember hearing the owner talk about its history. I remember being very impressed by its size and grandeur! It was owned by a woman. I believe she had a husband and children as well but I never saw them. Her elderly mother lived there also. It seemed like it was quite a long drive from where we got off the ferry after crossing the Channel. It wasn't terribly far from London, but far enough that we only stayed there a few nights to recover from jet lag before proceeding to a hotel from which we went back and forth to London. I think it was probably quite a standard village; I remember stone houses, horseback riders, children in school uniforms, etc all of which were of course quite novel to me!

I realize this is barely any information whatsoever, it certainly hasn't been enough for me to turn anything up via Google. Even though it's a long shot I am so hoping it rings a bell for someone! We had disposable cameras along but only a few blurry pictures were taken, though I can see it all clearly in my mind, and I'd love to revisit those memories with a bit more information.

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Thread gallery
6
MistyMeena · 17/09/2016 13:56

Could it be Gravesend? Lots of big grey Victorian buildings and one or two cobbled streets. Also a school with green/blue skirts, although I think they've changed it now.

user1471451355 · 17/09/2016 14:38

I'll be back later to look at all the links, just woke up and am feeding small DD her breakfast!

It was a weird trip, no denying that. The whole thing was very short and we visited only a few places - London Eye, Canterbury Cathedral, the Tower, a few I don't remember. We (well my parents, primarily) were on an adoption trip to Eastern Europe and apparently they thought hey, let's frantically zoom around for a few days and see what we can. Part of everyone's memory loss here is probably due to sheer exhaustion.

Yes, we rented a car, a days or more drive is absolutely nothing to people who are used to driving 1.5+ hours to the nearest decent store (-;

OP posts:
waterrat · 17/09/2016 14:44

This is surely a wind up.

VeryBitchyRestingFace · 17/09/2016 14:45

I'm flabbergasted at the idea of anyone who was a child in 2004 yesterday being old enough to be using Mumsnet.

Shock
user1471451355 · 17/09/2016 14:46

I emailed my mom a list of possibilities and she said "the dining room in this one looks right but who knows it was winter and we were tired." Confused
www.dadmans.co.uk/picture-gallery

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user1471451355 · 17/09/2016 14:47

She will send me the pictures as soon as she gets a chance.

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user1471451355 · 17/09/2016 14:52

Oo my parents are getting into this, Dad is apparently studying a map to see if he can remember the name of the town. Guess they're getting tired of my inquisition! Grin

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Rastel38 · 17/09/2016 14:55

I really can't see that you drove from Ansterdam to Nice to Calais without an overnight stop. I would say that is impossible.

fourquenelles · 17/09/2016 14:58

Place marking as I love a good Miss Marple thread and Mumsnetters are the very best at unpicking mysteries.

CitizenBloom · 17/09/2016 15:02

You can't have done Amsterdam to Nice for a day trip and then Nice to Calais crossing the next day. It's about 13 hours drive from Amsterdam to Nice and then would be about 11 hours to Calais from Nice. Look at a map!

Yes, and I'm assuming that this suggests other big lapses of memory or completely inaccurate recollections too, whether because the OP was a child in a strange place, or because the adults were so exhausted - or because of transcultural cross-purposes about what constitutes a village rather than a town, cobbles etc. 'Somewhere near London' could mean pretty much anywhere south of Newcastle, quite possibly!

milkysmum · 17/09/2016 15:02

Yep shamelessly place marking too!

user1471451355 · 17/09/2016 15:03

Rastel, no, we stayed the night in Nice, you're correct. I didn't mean to imply we didn't.

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user1471451355 · 17/09/2016 15:08

Update! My parents looked through a list of every B&B in the areas I mentioned and found it!

www.hartlipplace.co.uk

Clearly some of my memories were a bit off but I'm so excited to be able to look at pictures and remember that bizarre, fun trip. Thank you so much to everyone who was so helpful and interested and helped narrow down the general area. I really expected a resounding "that's impossible." Smile

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FruVikingessOla · 17/09/2016 15:15

"London Eye, Canterbury Cathedral, the Tower, a few I don't remember"

You must have driven around a fair bit? The London Eye and The Tower of London are in London.

Canterbury Cathedral is in ..... Canterbury, Kent - which is not in London.

Do you think it was Westminster Cathedral, which is in London?

To ask you to help me recall a memory
user1471451355 · 17/09/2016 15:17

No, I have a little collectible spoon from the cathedral, it is on my dresser to this day. Also have the ticket stub from the Eye. Clearly I'm more sentimental than my parents! We did drive around a considerable amount.

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FruVikingessOla · 17/09/2016 15:22

Ah. I X-posted - if you stayed at Hartlip Place in Sittingbourne, then it is near Canterbury. Your trips into London must have been on different days.

DesolateWaist · 17/09/2016 15:22

I'm flabbergasted at the idea of anyone who was a child in 2004 yesterday being old enough to be using Mumsnet.

Me too. How can someone who is clearly 12, because you would have to be if you were only 10 in 2004 be old enough to be posting online without their mother checking, let alone be a mother themselves.*

*I know this isn't true.

user1471451355 · 17/09/2016 15:29

If it makes you feel better, DesolateWaist, I am a young mother/wife, though not quite 12 (-; 2004 seems like eons ago to me! It was the year that my sibling was adopted (on that trip) and it certainly seems like they've been around forever!

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LurksNoLonger · 17/09/2016 15:32

Surely Sittingborne cannot be the town you are thinking of though? MIL lives there and doesn't really fit with the mental image I have of the OP!

user1471451355 · 17/09/2016 15:36

LurksNoLonger, it's possible I think that we stopped in another town on our way. Parents don't remember that day very clearly either. I primarily wanted to find the B&B though as I am obsessed with them. DH (who isn't remotely interested in B&Bs) and I go to one for every anniversary/weekend away/random occasion. That was the first one I'd ever been to and I loved it!

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CitizenBloom · 17/09/2016 15:42

Surely you didn't also have a newly-adopted sibling with you on this whistle-stop tour of Europe?

imsorryiasked · 17/09/2016 15:44

I'm glad you found it OP but it's not very grey Grin

EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard · 17/09/2016 15:46

I nearly plumped for Sittingborne when I suggested Faversham Grin

user1471451355 · 17/09/2016 15:47

CitizenBloom - as I said, we were on our way to Eastern Europe while on this trip, not that it matters, Hmm

Imsorryiasked - you are so right, I was really surprised that it wasn't a gray building. It must've just been a gray December day and I felt gray. Blush

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Lookdownthesofa · 17/09/2016 15:49

Haven't read the entire thread yet, but the Dadman's B&B would certainly fit your description. Teynham is about a 40 minute drive from Dover.