Blogs from West Sussex, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 3

This holiday has been a very long time in preparation. The cruises that form the later part of the holiday were booked back in January 2016 as they were a really good deal and we did not have to pay anything until January 2017. The two cruises combined will be the biggest we have ever undertaken and will be on Norwegian Epic our favourite cruise ship. When we booked these cruises, we also managed to get a good price on a one way flight to London Gatwick with Norwegian Airlines. At the point of booking, neither of us had flown with Norwegian, but have friends that rate it very highly. They have free on board Wi-Fi too on European flights. Since booking the flights, Theresa has flown from Tenerife to Madrid return on Norwegian and could ... read more

Geo: 51.1477, -0.167836Stupid o'clock doesn't even come into it. Up at three having not slept really at all during the night. I'm pretty sure I haven't seen that time in the morning for a very long time!! Fuelled with tea and a lot of makeup (just me, before the boys jump to conclusions abt James!) we headed to the summer special parking and boarded a bus full of equally shattered people, all wondering if the saving of going on an EARLY flight was worth all of this!! It was me, this time, that got frisked and scanned by security at Gatwick which made James' day I think!! After a LARGE Starbucks and James his standard flying pint, we didn't have much time before our gate was called. Good job we left then as I think we ... read more

Well, it started as a quiet musing to Sam, who was soon to begin the next leg of her world adventures, back in April. Soon, flights were booked, plans were made, and all of my belongings were boxed up and crammed back into my childhood bedroom at my parents' house (thanks, by the way. Again). April doesn't seem that long ago now, but September seemed a very long way away then... Crikey these things creep up on you don't they! Now it's D-Day. My brother Tim woke up at an unseemly hour to bring me all the way to Gatwick Airport (thanks, again), and soon I'll be boarding a plane, having checked in a bag carefully packed with optimal efficiency, to the maximum weight permitted on my flight booking. It's too late to have forgotten something. ... read more

Our wee FOG cottage (Flat over Garage) was great once you got used to the sloping ceiling! Was on a PYO berry farm on the South Downs and on the family estate, Lisa and Andy were wonderful hosts and found a spare pop up bed for Alister who joined us for 2 of our 3 nights there. We walked up to Chanctonbury Ring in the morning, then picked Alister up in Brighton and took a stroll out on the dramatic Seven Sisters cliffs. Brilliant sunny day. Was nice to go back 'home' and prepare a meal and chat over a drink in the evening. Tuesday we visited Arundel in the morning, popped home for lunch and headed down to Brighton as Alister had a job interview there (long story, he ended up getting a different job ... read more

We had visited Wakehurst Place several times. Our happy memories brought us back to Wakehurst Place, near Haywards Heath, on 12 May. Upon the arrival at Wakehurst Place, we decided to have a picnic lunch. I found it quite breezy while having lunch, but believed that it would get warmer in the afternoon. After the lunch, we started exploring the garden. We remembered the Jacobean style mansion. We noted a brand new restaurant built near the mansion. The wonderful garden was largely created by Gerald Loder (later Lord Wakehurst). The garden was passed on to Sir Henry Price in the 1960s. The property including the garden was given away to the National Trust in 1965. Wakehurst Place is home to the National Collections of birches and beeches and evergreen shrubs. Many of those trees and shrubs ... read more