2nd July 2010 - A Place in the Wops

I started the day with a continental breakfast for a change. This was a surprise for Gemma as every time so far I have gone for some version of full English breakfast. In this case I did not because yesterdays had been so bad so I decided that going for something that I could see at selection time felt like a better option!

Then Gemma and I spent some time trying to get our train tickets sorted for the European part of our trip. I think we should have spent more time before this doing the planning. Looks like we will have to drop Verdun, there is just not enough time for transfers etc. Gemma and I agree that Verdun will have to be a separate trip some time in the future. Perhaps we will have a holiday dedicated to northern France.

Gemma has just booked our Prague to London section on easyjet so we have our return timings now. We just have to sort out all the intermediate bits! We discovered that we will have to phone raileurope to get our tickets as not all of it can be done over the phone.

Then it's checkout time and we are off to look at the castle, slowly. Another truck has had trouble on the roundabout and everything is at a standstill. I suspect that this happens quite a bit around here, small windy narrow roads and lots if big trucks.

We got to the castle just as it was opening, $28 each to get in seems a bit steep. However the gardens are really nice, particularly the water gardens. It's a real castle not some disney mockup. Real keep battlements etc. Only the keep, the main halls and some of the battlements are open as the rest is a private residence but that is well worth visiting. The private chapel is larger than some churches. Due to a mix up we even got to see the bedrooms which were actually an add-on cost.

Then after a cup of tea/first lunch it was time to head to Ipswich. Well try to at least the traffic had still not recovered from the earlier problems. On the way we stopped at a little chef at Chelmsford bypass for second lunch/first dinner. It was like stepping back in time, really 1970's, even down to being disorganized. And the decor was very worn, it looks like it is ready for closure. Still it was reasonable refueling and we were off again.

Then it was Bury St Edmunds, and no cell coverage just as were were trying to refine our directions. Yes we are lost. We managed to recover coverage and check our details and discover that rather that being on the edge of town I have booked us into a place 10 miles outside! (Six Bells Inn Bardwell) It's right in the middle if nowhere the Wops of Suffolk! It's actually an old pub that has had rooms added onto it. It's in a real

picturesque British village. Very nice. Gemma and I had a walk round to find the post box to send some cards. It has a village pond with village ducks, one store (closed) and a village hall all very quiet but very nice. Gemma keeps on having a go at me about how far out we are. We eat at the pub that evening, nice but simple food. We booked our breakfasts and time to turn in.

Here is a Flickr set showing many more pictures from this day

1st July Fishbourne Roman Palace

Quite a poor English breakfast at the Inn, buffet style and I can't remember what was actually wrong, probably not up to my expectations, no black pudding I expect.

Fishbourne palace is very interesting, well organised. It was easy to find if a bit unexpected. I say that because when you drive there first you are driving through a winding road in an average English village when you turn a corner and there it is right in front of you. Feels more like driving onto a school sports field.

It's great to see the remains but it does leave you feeling that there is a lot more story to the site than they are telling you. I think kids tours should be limited to certain times and the kids should be muzzled. The noise and chaos spoilt things. I don't expect it to be like a library but never-ending screams of "miss! " get to much after a while. I bought a T-shirt and a very good book (Roman Forts in Britain by Paul Bidwell) on Roman forts in the gift shop.

Then on to Chichester. It's a small town but easy to walk around. We went into the National Trust shop which I thought was ok but Gemma did not think was that good. Then across the road to a Marks and Sparks. Stocked up on underwear, would have liked to look around to see what had changed but we were yet again under the time gun. We went to a nice looking pub near where we had parked for lunch, what a mistake to make! It was really bad, slow service and very poor food, mine was just edible bur gem's baked potato was so bad that she complained and got her money back.

Then Arundel cathedral. It is big really big, it totally dominates the town! I still don't understand how such a small town got such a big church. We went around the gardens which were really nice.

We are saving the castle for tomorrow and as it was getting late we went back to the inn. Rather than go and find someplace to eat we decided to eat at the pub attached to the inn. Given what the breakfast had tasted like I was a bit dubious about this decision but to my delight the pan roasted salmon was really good. It was followed by a couple of good beers then time to read, update the trip diary and to bed to refresh for another days traveling tomorrow.