Battle of Hastings and Brighton- Thursday, July 25, 2013

Today is our first day with a car of our own and the beginning of our trip in the England that exists beyond London.  We packed up all of our things from the London hotel room, and started our journey out to Heathrow Airport to get our rent-a-car.  Anna had a nasty-looking slip on some wet stairs early on.  She certainly skinned her legs a bit.  The journey to Heathrow was the longest trip that we took using the London subways, and it felt even harder because we were hauling full loads in our backpacks.  

Once we got to Heathrow, we got our car.  It's an Audi, and there are a lot of nice features on it.  It has a built in GPS system, which is fortunate because "Lizzie" has not been cooperating with us at all, in spite of the maps we paid for before we left.  The traffic patterns around Heathrow are probably some of the worst places to adjust to a new car.  Of course, it's often tricky to drive a different car because the controls are not where you expect them, but here we had the whole steering wheel on the "passenger" side, we were trying to figure out how to program and understand the new GPS system, we were trying to decode the new system of signs and road markings, and of course, Julie was trying to figure out how to drive on the left side of the road.  It's probably not surprising that we took several wrong turns before we got away from the airport, but soon we were on our way. 

Our first real tourist stop was the most famous battlefield in England- the Battle of Hastings.  The battle, fought in 1066, was actually fought on a hill in what is now called the town of Battle, outside of Hastings itself.  As battlefields go, this is a very small one compared to what we're used to from the CIvil War, and much has changed over the nearly 1000 years that have passed since the battle.  We didn't know what to expect going in, but it was well worth the visit.  The tour starts with an audio guide that take takes you to a small but well done visitors' centre.  There, you watch a short film about the battle, which uses re-enactors, computer generated images, and animated scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry.  The stroll through the battlefield is well narrated and the path takes you through some peaceful woods that circle down, around, and back up the battlefield's hill.  You get to view the perspectives of the Normans under William the Conquerer who fought uphill towards the Anglo Saxons under Harold, at the top of the hill.  Even though, part of the path was being reseeded and was closed, we still felt like the audio guide was providing us with great insights on how the battle unfolded on the ground in front of us.  The tour ended in the ruins of Battle Abbey.  It was ordered to be built by William after the battle, partly as penance for the many who were left dead here.  The abbey's alter is supposed to be on the spot where Harold was killed, probably shot in the eye by a Norman arrow.  The audio guide than takes you through the lives of the Benedictine monks who inhabited the abbey until it was destroyed by Henry VIII.   After this battle, William was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey and had the Tower of London built, both of which we've seen this week.   The Bayeux Tapestry which was sewn after the battle, shows the scenes from the battle in what is essentially a long comic strip, and we saw that in 2009.  It was very satisfying to visit this little battlefield that made such a huge impact on the lives of English speaking peoples everywhere today.

We left the town of Battle and continued to follow the car's GPS over the small country roads of Sussex in the southeast of England.  These roads are nicely paved but quite narrow.  Hedges that are about ten feet high crowd the sides of the road, and oncoming traffic always seem to just miss you as it whizzes by you on the right.  As Julie is still learning to negotiate on British roads, we went weaving through this labyrinthine area.  As we wove towards one picket fence and swerved around it in time, Scott said it felt like we were on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. 

Scott was about to point out the white chalk patches that he could see in one of the steep hills to the south of us, when he caught a glimpse of the mysterious, pre-historic drawing of the "Long Man of Wilmington." Scott saw it once or twice more,  but because of the banks and trees, it was only for a second or two each time and no one else in the car could see it.  They all said he was crazy, but Scott knows it was there.

We went to Brighton, which is known for it's beach and for the amusements on its pier.  We walked down to the shore on some very rocky ground that shifted underneath you as you walked.  (We guess it was put there to slow erosion.)  Naturally, instead of the 90 degree weather with the sun bearing down on us, it was now overcast and almost chilly just because we were at a beach.  That didn't stop Anna from taking a dip in the English Channel, though.  

As we walked down the beach to the Pier, we saw one older guy doing something with a long stick-like contraption.  He'd shove it into the sand, pull a plunger on it to suck up whatever it was that was there. and then empty it onto the beach.  Julie said that it was time for a Rick Steves moment, and talked the girls into finding out more.  Emma was the brave one who asked, "Watcha doin'?" He told us he was looking for worms to be used for fishing.  He told us a little about how his tube worked, and showed us the couple of worms that he had already caught today.  They were enormous-- bigger around than Scott's thumb and longer than his hand.  The guy said that he might get have to try 50 times before he actually finds a worm.

We walked down Brighton Pier, with it's carnival rides and amusements.  The girls put a few coins in some of the machines, and Anna bought a sweatshirt that says, "I *heart* London."  We were hoping to find some carnival food to have for dinner, and Scott got a waffle with chocolate on it, but the "fish and chips and mushy peas" didn't appeal to us because we really don't like fish or mushy peas.  We ate at the Burger King at the start of the pier.

Julie's drive to the hotel tonight continued her sink-or-swim education for how to drive in England with some night-time driving.   She is getting more comfortable on the roundabouts (traffic circles), but there's an awful lot of them.  She said today was the hardest driving she'd ever done.  We're proud of how well she seems to be doing.  Tonight, we're sleeping in Southampton.  (We're not impressed with this hotel chain.  We've got to park at a lot some distance away, and walked through a seedy looking place.  We're only here one night, though.)