Blogs from East Sussex, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Day 11.5 - Plans Change Part I Still in Chichester it's dinner time, Greek food - yum! We have to decide if we want to avoid Dover and Calais as we have an opportunity to catch a ferry from Newhaven (tomorrow's destination) to Dieppe in France if we want to. The conversation is robust and no decision is made over dinner. Instead we go back to our room and first try to book accommodation in Newhaven. That's where we hit our first snag - we couldn't find anything that suited us at all (2 beds, plus bike storage). The only things available were way out of town or way too expensive. We restarted the conversation about going to Dieppe on the ferry. We looked at available ferries - we could get on a ferries at either ... read more

Greetings from England! We are in Eastbourne, located on the southern coast of England, in the county of East Sussex. We made our flight from Vancouver to London! I was a bit worried, since we were flying standby, but we got on the flight no problem. After being dropped off at the airport by our good friend Alida (thanks Alida 😀), we spent a couple of hours at the premium lounge at the airport with a few beverages and snacks. After a gin and tonic I was more relaxed about making the flight, especially as there were still at least ten seats available at that point. We were really hoping we might get upgraded, but unusually, it was a very full flight (I think more people were travelling to London because of the Queen’s recent passing), ... read more

Departing Canterbury, we headed directly to Hastings, or more accurately Battle, the site of the actual battle of Hastings in 1066. The Roman rule in Britain lasted roughly from the founding of Londinium in 43 CE until about 500 CE.. Caesar had invaded twice about 100 years earlier, but then left locals in charge and departed. By 84 CE the Romans had conquered all of the island with the exception of the Caledonian holdouts in the Scottish highlands. At the end of the 3rd century CE, barbarian invasions became more common, and the Romans finally quit Britain in 410 CE. Invaders from the continent, known as Anglo-Saxons, rose to power by the beginning of the 6th century CE. King Arthur (of whom we shall hear more later) is the reputed Briton king who tried in vain ... read more

It is our anniversary, Fiona and I have been together for 5 years. I wanted to take Fiona to European city for a long weekend, but with the Covid spike and further government restrictions, this was going to make things a bit more tricky; plus Jovie's nursery fees seem to be eating away quickly at my savings, so we decide to do something low-key and go away for the night. Fiona had brought me the previous Christmas a gift voucher to meet Meerkats and locations around the UK where limited offering this experience and so I decide to find a hotel near one of the locations that will allow me to use my free-night stay that I had accumulated with Hotels.com. I find this hotel called Dale Hill Hotel & Golf Club in a small village ... read more

Dear All Greetings, and hello again from London. I am writing at the end of a lovely week-long half-term holiday, the Thursday of which I decided to head out and explore again, and am now writing up my blog entry for another lovely local day trip from London. This time I headed southwards, to the south coast, to a lovely little seaside town called Eastbourne, and some nearby star attractions: Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters, both located in the south-eastern corner of the expansive South Downs National Park. It was a highly enjoyable day, and I must admit I saw what I believe to be one of England’s most spectacular natural wonders. While England, to my mind, is an adorable country, of rolling hills, cute landscapes and quaint villages, I believe there are not too ... read more