It was a cold morning on 2nd December 2023 when I met Caro at Erith train station. She was the only one on the platform and we had ten minutes to wait for our train, so we were early! Soon after, we boarded the train which was thankfully warmer, we sped (as far as Southeastern speed) to Gravesend for our changing train to Rochester. We had warmed up by the time we needed to get off and wait the twenty minutes in the cold.
Along with other randoms going to see the Rochester Dickensian Christmas Festival were some Charlton supporters heading to their doomed cup game at Gillingham which they would end up losing 2-0. The ‘javelin’ train boarded, not as warm as the previous one, and we made our way two stops to Rochester.
Once we got there it was just a very short walk to the high street although we were slowed by a busload of tourists (I think German) all going in our direction plus some of the Charlton supporter preparing to take in the sights before going off to see their team.
Rochester was busy, we had over an hour to wait for the parade so naturally (for Caro) she got a hot chocolate, and we hit the shops, especially the charity/gift shops that Caro likes.
After visiting the cathedral and every charity/gift shop possible (and there are lots in Rochester) Caro suggested that we go for a drink as I think she could see I was tiring. There was only one choice at that time (about 11ish), the Spoons.
Rochester Spoons isn’t a great one, The Golden Lion has just 3.9 stars in reviews on Google and TripAdvisor only gives it 3.5. It was busy because it is cheap (and sometimes cheerful). But we were served and somehow managed to find somewhere to stand with a little table to rest our booze on. Well, my booze, Caro is not drinking at the moment.
Getting closer to the midday main parade we ended up chatting with a nice couple of guys who were in the parade, one from Gatwick and another from somewhere in Surrey. They left to get ready and we finished up and left the Spoons and managed to find a gap in the crowds where we could easily see!
You can see the full video I took of the parade here on YouTube. Lots of people in various dresses, drummers, jugglers, dancers and a whole host of Victorian costumes. Caro was even handed a card from an undertaker, I’m not entirely sure I’m happy about that as to who she going to use it for!
The parade only lasted five or so minutes, but we slowly followed up the road so we could walk to a church on a hill that had a tower which had amazing views. Once reached, we were taken up by a very nice man and climbed the narrow staircase all 76 steps before reaching the top. The views were amazing, although spoiled a bit by the fog and mist.
Back down and a bite to eat to support the church we walked back down to the main part of Rochester, we failed to find a seat in a small traditional pub The Coopers Arms, so we walked to a larger establishment that I knew at the top of Rochester by the railway bridge, the Royal Crown and boy was it busy. However, we managed to find a place to rest our drinks, including the great named zero alcohol Naughty Bear that Caro had.
Here are some pics from the day (blog continues below):
She then had a brilliant idea, upstairs (in my defense I didn’t know the pub had an upstairs!). Caro even found a seat and we managed to get a table after some football fans moved off to get a train to Gillingham. The upstairs of the Royal Crown (and downstairs that we could see) has been done up very nicely. I overheard somebody said that they had spent £1m on it and it showed. I think we would return on a less busy and cold day!
We then decided to go and have a look at the Christmas Market in the castle, on the way a band were playing The Pogues – Fairytale of New York, which we stopped to listen to, it’s my favourite Christmas song and having lost Shane MacGowan a couple of days earlier it felt right to sing along to the band.
Up to the castle we walked, with a couple of hundred others to be greeted with lots of smells from so many stalls and little pop-up shops selling virtually everything. This was a real Christmas market and Caro went to town lol. Actually, she wasn’t bad at all, we got a few things including presents for family members and some cheese!
We were hungry by this point so we walked back down to the main town area and got a double sausage hot dog which was nice but small sausages and huge roll meant the proportions were strange, plus the queue took ages! It was then that we made the decision to go home as we had seen most of what we wanted to, it was colder (zero degrees) and pitch black.
The train was a thirty-minute wait, but we managed to change at Dartford for one that was leaving a few minutes later, which meant we were not cold for too long. We had a naughty drink at the Red Barn by Barnehurst station, but we were a bit tired by now, so being lazy we ordered an Uber and then being even more lazy, I got a pizza meal in and we snuggled up on the sofa watching The Last of Us (which is new to Caro) for the rest of the evening
All in all a really good day, I’d recommend going next year if you can!