The Catcher in The Rye

I guess you are familiar with the title that I take from one of the best selling novel by J. D Salinger but I bet you don't know if there is a place called Rye in England, eh? It's not my intention to underestimate you. I just found that only one in ten people know about Rye while the rest of them replied me with, "Where is it? I don't know". Well, if you one of those people and start becoming curious with the exact location of it, please ask Mr. Google :)

You may call me old-fashioned now as I prefer to go to English small town instead of large modern cities which are usually chosen by the most people my age. Just because now I picked small town it doesn't mean that I'm not interested with big city anymore. I've just become so obsessed with English and European villages since I was a child. I don't know if it's only me who develop a fascination with them and imagine the sight of cute little villages when I read Oliver Twist or watch classic fairy tales movies.

It's not so surprising that Rye has been known as one of the most beautiful town in England

The most famous street in Rye, Mermaid Street

Rye still got the cuteness even for the house number plaque

The house with two front doors

Needless to say, there are plenty of lovely cottages!

The menu list at Cobbles Tea Room restaurant

If you search for English best villages or small towns on Google, you will probably find many of them. So why did I choose Rye? It began years ago when I've started to play Tumblr and follow one of the accounts about traveling. I saw two images of Rye which were the images of Mermaid Street and Cobbles Tea Room. At that time I only adore their beauties and never thinking that I could visit them someday. After I moved to England and determine which places I want to visit, suddenly the image of Rye popped into my mind. I was in doubt at the first time whether I visit it or other towns, but finally I chose it as I gained information that there are lots of adorable part in this town, numerous antique and collectables stores and the fact that Paul McCartney had used to live there.

This Landgate is the only remaining gate of four gates that was built in 1066

Cafe de Fleurs. A lovely flower and cake shop in town

Another fantastic view of Rye from the rooftop of St. Mary's Church

The wind direction

Can you feel the splash of fairy tale?

A funny thing happened when I visited this town with my friend. For her, two hours was enough to visit this town as she thought that there aren't much places and attractions to visit. While for me, five hours was still not enough to see around the town as there are 42 places including streets, shops, museums and other kind of attractions in my itinerary. Then it was obvious that after one hour we visited the main places like St. Mary's Church and Mermaid Street, we decided to separate. Well, I don't recommend you to visit Rye unless you are a die hard fan of old English style houses, vintage and antique things, calm and peaceful places, cute streets and a fairytale lover.

One of the antique shops along the Strand Quay

Rye has also got sweet street names

If you are kitchenholics, you can get crazy once you enter the store

More and more antique stores!

Here are the places that you should visit in Rye; the rooftop of St. Mary's Church, Mermaid Street, antique shops in Strand Quay, Cobbles Tea Room, The Ship Inn, Lamb House (Henry's James House which unfortunately closed during winter), Cafe des Fleurs, Hayden's, Grammar School Records, Rye Art Gallery, Ypres Tower Museum, McCully & Crane, Laura Oakes, Windmill Guest House, Trader's Passage Street, Wish Street. If you want to get more recommended places, you can ask me so that I can give you my itinerary :)