The City of Rye

I am sorry that I didn't post last night. We had a long weekend of sightseeing, and I was just too tired to do anything other than sleep. Before I tell you about what we did this weekend, let me finish up last weekend.

After Bodiam Castle, our little group went to a town called Rye.  Rye is a very, very old city--parts of it have been around since the 1100s! It is a small town, more like a village than a city, and was a very important shipping port in its heyday. 

One of the first things we saw there was Mermaid Street.

This street was the main road in Rye during the 1500s.  It is still used today, though it was not really built for cars, so it is a one-way street.

This is a view down Mermaid Street.  It looks like it might be made of bricks, but it is, in fact, a cobblestone street.  Basically, it is made of lots of rocks all cemented together.  Pretty to look at...not fun to walk down. I still have a really deep bruise on my left heel that makes it hard to walk.

Anyway, one of the neatest things about Mermaid Street is the Mermaid Inn.

The cellars of the Inn date back to 1156!  The original Inn was destroyed by fire, but the building you are looking at is still quite old.

This was built in 1420! To put this in perspective, "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue."  America had not even been discovered yet when this building was re-built!

But the Mermaid Inn is not the only old building in Rye.

There was a sign on this church that said "Celebrating 900 years in 2003."  Yeah, that's right--a 900 year old church!  The thing about churches way back then (and even in more recent history) is that they were not just used for worshipping and weddings. 

Most churches were also where people were buried.  These headstones are so old that they cannot be read anymore! 

I know it is kind of gruesome in a way, but I was absolutely fascinated by the cemetery!  Such history!

I'll leave you with that for now and tell you more about Rye and how it was defended from pirates tomorrow!