It may sound unusual, but we went to England and got sunburned! I took off Friday and Monday for a long weekend. Friday morning we walked the two blocks to Brussels’s Central Train Station and took the Eurostar train to London. Our train stopped in Lille, France and Ashford, England and took about two and a half hours. It was our first time to travel through the “Chunnel” as the tunnel under the English Channel is called.
On hand to meet us at Waterloo Station was our good friend, David Tomalin. It appeared that our England trip coincided with two big English events – Ascot races and Wimbledon tennis. That Friday was the final, grand Ascot race and the Waterloo Station was filled with young men and women going to the races. The men had their tuxedoes with long tails and their top hats. The women had their tight, form fitting sundresses and bizarre hats, a symbol of Ascot. They all had their cell phones and looked important making their phone calls – probably to each other. David and I noticed that many of the dresses were see through and, like their American cousins, many of the women had tattoos.
We caught another train to Oxshott where David had parked his car and then drove the
A-24 south to their house in Findon. We were greeted by Gillian Tomalin, unpacked our bags and had a nice, light lunch in their beautiful back garden. In England they say “garden” where we say “yard”. What we call a garden, they call a vegetable patch or veg-patch for short. Whatever. The skies were sunny and bright and the air was mild.
After lunch we drove to the pretty little village of Arundel, so named because it is in a dell on the river Arun. The village skyline is dominated by the 11th century Norman castle and Arundel cathedral that was only built in the 1870s. We walked around the town looking in antique and garden shops. We also had an English cream tea, which involves tea and scones with butter, whipped cream and strawberry preserves. Yummy! After that we drove back to their house and rested up.
In the evening we walked into the village of Findon and had a nice meal at Findon Manor, a small hotel with restaurant. Findon Manor has 11 rooms, all named after well-known horses that have been trained in the village. I should mention that Findon is in horse country and several thoroughbred jumper horses are stabled here. But, alas, the village blacksmith shop has been converted to a leather shop frequented by the
Harley-Davidson bikers. Respectable ones, however.
David and Gillian had plans for us on Saturday. After a nice sleep we had breakfast outside in the garden again and were away by 10:00 am. We drove to Portsmouth, the main port of the British Navy. Much of the old navy yards have been converted into the Royal Naval Museum and a great museum it is. Our first tour was the HMS Victory, Lord Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar. One can only tour the ship in groups with a guide and our guide was super. He was a retired British navy salt who kept us in stitches with his funny comments and stories. We saw the plaque where Nelson was hit by gunshot and, two decks further down, the spot where he died. One of the amusing true stories was about his death. At that time, 1805, dead bodies would not keep on board for more than three days and everyone was buried at sea. One of Nelson’s last comments to his good friend and vice admiral was “not at sea, don’t bury me at sea”. So he was shipped back to England perfectly preserved in a barrel of brandy.
The next tour was of the remains of the Mary Rose, a ship built by directions of Henry VIII in 1509. It sank off Portsmouth in 1545, was discovered in 1971 and raised in 1982. It is housed in a special shed with a special mix of water and chemicals sprayed on the remains continuously. This process will take another 20 years. Half the ship remained buried under the sand. The exposed wood was eaten away by organisms and worms.
After a quick lunch we toured one more British warship, the HMS Warrior. The British had several ships named Warrior but this one was launched in 1860 and is very large at 418 feet in length. I was especially interested in Warrior because when we lived in England in 1976-77, I worked at an underground British naval base in Northwood, England named after the ship, HMS Warrior. The guide told me the base has since been renamed.
We went into some of the museum buildings and shops in this naval museum and, by the time we finished, the day was mostly over. We drove back to the house, had tea outside and read the newspaper. In the evening we drove to Worthing and had a nice dinner at Trenchers restaurant. This day was the beginning of my sunburn.
Sunday we slept in late and then Gillian prepared a nice cooked breakfast, which we ate outdoors again. While Rita and Gillian visited, David and I went for a hike on the Sussex Downs. The Sussex Downs is a long line of hill or up cropping that runs along the English south coast. It is crisscrossed with numerous hiking trails and one going all along the ridge. We hiked past a paddock of thoroughbred horses, past fields of sheep and finally fields of barley blowing in the light breeze. It was an extremely hot day for England, close to 90 degrees and no clouds in the sky. Naturally I had shorts and T-shirt with no hat. This is where I obtained most of my sunburn.
David pointed out various wild flowers and I was surprised to learn that southern England has about a dozen varieties of orchids. We saw one type on our hike. The subject of our hike was the Cissbury Rings, a rather large hill fort about 3000 years old that dates to the Iron Age. The hill fort had a moat dug out and dirt walls for protection. The Romans used these hill forts later on, as did the Normans, and some were used for World War II defenses as well. From the top, David pointed out the haunted Chanctonbury Ring hill fort, which is a favorite place for modern day druids at winter solstice.
After our hike we picked up Gillian and Rita and drove to the Sportsman pub in the countryside near the village of Amberley. We had a pint then drove into Amberley for a walk around. Amberley is the type of English village that Americans love – limestone houses with thatched roofs, beautiful rose gardens, pretty parish church and an old castle that has been turned into a hotel. We stopped at a pottery where Rita made a few purchases.
Next we drove to Parham House, a stately Elizabethan mansion where Queen Elizabeth I is rumored to have visited. We toured the pretty house, which wasn’t so large as to be boring. There were many fine art treasures. After that we toured the gardens, which were set up as original Elizabethan gardens would have been, with no foreign plants.
We went back to the Tomalin’s house where Gillian prepared an excellent meal of lamb shank and trimmings. We downed two great bottles of Australian wine, one being a 1992 Wolf Blass black label shiraz. Naturally we ate in the garden.
Monday we took it easy in the morning. We all drove into Worthing, a seaside town, and walked along the sea front. We had coffee and walked in and out of some of the nice shops in the arcade. We had lunch once more outdoors then packed our bags and said our goodbyes to Gillian. David drove us back up to Oxshott where we took a train past Wimbleton, where the tennis tournament had started. We caught our Eurostar train back to Brussels, arriving there about 9:00 pm. A short walk home and we could unpack and check our email.
It was a great weekend with good friends, plenty of good food and wine, entertaining sights to see and plenty of sunshine.
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