First week in England

The South

We arrived at Heathrow at 5:30am, Sunday 20 May 2012,  to a very cold day, collected our hire car and hit the road.  It took us a while to work out which direction but eventually we headed on to the M25 towards east Sussex.  "That's not East Sussex", I hear you say, and you would be right.  As we could not work out where in particular we were going, we decided to head for Brighton as you see in the following photos. (It was on the list).  After going past a great many mini minors, we realised the 26th Annual London to Brighton Mini Marathon (Rally) was on, and we saw them frequently during the day.

We got to Brighton, parked the car and took a walk.  The Pier was not open yet as it was only 9am, so we walked through the Lanes to the Information Bureau to work out when things were open. As we were a bit early, we decided to head for a car boot fair up on the hill at the racecourse (so Lesley could get her first fix).  As it was so cold and windy, Marc bought a jacket!!!

Anyway, back to the city centre we went, walking past all the beautiful Georgian buildings to the Pier. We did not know there was a Brighton Eye.

We were not impressed by all the gambling machines in the first part of the pier, and the same with the fish and chips and mushy peas for lunch (very greasy, but the peas were good).

Some Morris dancers in the Lanes.

Following this we visited the Royal Pavilion which is so over the top and amazing.  Indian on the outside and Chinese on the inside.

This knitted version was in the window of a coffee shop.  Too cute!

We drove along the coast to the west towards Littlehampton and found this converted barn B&B.  It was very well done with thatched outbuildings and lovely garden.  The lady Pauline, has visited Australia several times and had even been to Batemans Bay!  She stated she never turns Australians away and we talked with her for an hour after breakfast.

Pauline suggested we visit Arundal Castle which was nearby, but unfortunately it was closed on Mondays.  We walked around the village and saw some good antique shops, much to Marc's delight.

From Arundal we drove to Chichester and went to the Weald Open Air museum at Singleton, which had many old buildings from Sussex reconstructed.  these were from 1400's to 1850's.

We had a lot of trouble finding a B&B, but found this one at Laurent, Flint Cottage B&B.  We had a really good meal at a gastro pub Earl of March down the road.  Here is Marc enjoying his full English breakfast the next morning.  I had kippers which are still repeating on me!

On Tuesday we headed for Portsmouth and got the ferry to Isle of Wight.  Here am I in the gardens of Osborne House, where Queen Victoria died.  Her and Albert' apartments had twin gates which locked everyone out at night!

We had a cream tea at Ryde, then we stayed the night at the Carlton Hotel at Sandgate, where Marc tried his hand at swimming the English Channel.  Well, he managed to stay in for all of ten seconds!  It was way too cold.

We drove around to a lovely village called Shanklin for an unusual Spanish meal - but all we could find open and drove back to the hotel, where we were the youngest there.  In the morning we negotiated the antiquated plumbing and headed off for a drive around the Isle, to Vetnor.  The countryside was gorgeous and there were lots of beautiful thatched cottages.  Here is Marc at Carisbrook Castle, almost in the centre of the island.  It had a donkey run mill wheel which we saw in action.

After this we continued around the island, spent a nano second in Cowes, then headed for the ferry which we missed.  They let us on the next one half an hour later though.

We drove through Winchester looking for somewhere to stay and eventually found one at Firsdown.  Had a lovely meals at the Silver Plough.  They had a seat with a plaque to say that this was Sir Edward Heath's favourite seat in the pub.

The Silver Plough (above) with lots of things hanging from the beams.  In the morning we took a walk around Salisbury and saw the Cathedral.

Then on the Stonehenge.  Need I say more?

A visit to Blenheim Palace in the afternoon, then on to Milton Keanes to stay at a B&B nearby.

Friday 25 May 2012. After the usual substantial brekky, we arrived at Bletchley Park at around 9:30.  We took a tour of the old house and various outbuildings.

At the end of the tour we were ushered into the building which housed Collossus the first computer.  This is a copy which was built by people who worked on the first one.  They happened to find they had plans and all the bits in their sheds, against orders.  There was also info on Alan Turing and a very large collection of Churchill memorabilia, owned by one couple.

We reluctantly left at 3:30, not having quite seen everything.  The complex was so interesting and would recommend a visit.

Then, on to Norfolk to meet Kevin and Linda in Norwich.