Travelling Southern England

We are currently in the town of Lewes (Near Brighton), and its looking like a lovely summers day. We are fortunate with our timing in that the Farmers Market is on this morning (being the 1st Saturday of the month)

Farewell to Waterworks House

We left the sanctuary of our Twyford home (Waterworks House) on Wednesday after gathering as many necessities as we think we need to make our foray into Europe next Monday (the 8th) when we cross over to France. Thank you Kath & Owen for your wonderful hospitality & support over our three week stay.  K&O held a long planned party on Saturday night for some friends with a BBQ where Bill managed to get involved by turning some sausages over in the evening. It was an enjoyable evening meeting a variety of people who have done a lot of travel too. One couple had lived on their Yacht for years travelling the world before settling back into a normal lifestyle in Winchester. For us Kiwi's the temperature was still a little low (freezing) for an outside party, but the hearty English didn't seem to have a problem. They had no idea what a brazier was!

Chalcroft Cottage, Bognor Regis

We bought some new push bikes that were on sale that looked a better deal than second hand ones which the market seemed to be commanding high prices on the local web sites. We now have matching white bikes, that hopefully aren't as desirable as coloured ones. The motor home came with an excellent bike rack & cover, but the down side is that it is hindering the reversing camera for now till Bill can make an adjustment., .

Bognor Regis Beach

Our first stop was Bognor Regis which wasn't too big a distance for our first day. We have found through the Caravan Club Book these rural locations of Registered Certified Sites where people offer their properties to park over for the night. We are trying to find ones just outside of towns where we can ride our bikes or walk into. These sites normally offer water and waste disposal, and lovely paddocks/ grounds in rural locations. Bognor Regis was perfect for a two night stay as it gave us time to check out Bognor Regis on our bikes the first evening, then the next day to check out Arundel where we had seen the imposing castle on our way through when we first bought the motor home the week before.

Arundel Castle in the background

Unfortunately it was very busy with it being the second day of the annual celebration of Corpus Christi - bus loads after bus loads of people were bought into this little historic town which once was a thriving little port back in the 10th Century.

A nice quiet beer

We managed to enjoy a lovely walk around the area & find a small pub around the back streets for a quiet drink & we thought "takeaways". They had a sign to say you could bring in your own food plus offered "takeaways". Great some food! But no - "takeaways" was what you can do with their beer - take it away!
It was a pretty little town, once again full of history. So many Wars / Dukes came and went at the whim of Royalty.

Typical pub across the road from the cathedral

Cathedral & Castle in the background of Arundel

We found the museum after we had over sated our appetite (didn't we Bill?) but unfortunately it was only an hour from closing time at 4, so we were asked to leave before we were ready, much to Bill's disappointment. Once again! :)

Port of Littlehampton

Friday we headed off to Lewes (pronounced Lewis), got in late afternoon, set up on a  lovely farm just out of town, a place called Kingston. Got on our bikes and headed into Lewes via the cycle way (there are plenty of them in England which is great) to check out the town on a Friday evening.

Lewes - view across the Priory ruins

All the commuters were arriving back by train, and cars were pouring into the little one way streets of the town as the weekend approached.

Lewes Castle Gate

After a couple of hours checking out the town, we found the Brewers Arms, a lovely quiet pub on the High Street, where Bill actually had a beer he rated 5 out of 8 on his new scale. (his scale ratings will be the next blog) while I had a quite Sauvignon Blanc.

We then returned to our new home for our first full home meal.

Lovely old homes - no parking though!