Headlines
Breakfast in the Sun Room
Taxi and Train: Eastbourne to Winchester (again)
We Sample a Motorway Service Area
George and Dragon: our third miss is a lucky one
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Stream of Consciousness
Breakfast in the Sun Room
I'm not sure that I could ever get used to the English idea that is is good to deliberately sit in the sun. Especially not for eating a meal. Our table for breakfast is by the window. All available tables have some sun shining on them. Half way through breakfast -- and I'm dripping sweat. We draw some attention when I close the curtains...
Today, a lighter breakfast than usual: for my hot course I try omelette. It arrives -- too hot to eat! It's a fluffy omelette, no milk, French(?) style, very light. Very nice, too. With just the right amount of cheese.
We pack our cases -- I can put the heavy raincoats in a case rather than carry them in my backpack! I bring the cases downstairs. Ask for a taxi.
Taxi and Train: Eastbourne to Winchester (again)
The taxi is soon here. While we are walking downstairs, the driver and the b&b host have loaded our cases. We're off!
The taxi driver claims to have 50 relatives in Eastern Australia and will be visiting later this year. His first trip to Australia. His main concern is the 24 hour flight! Fair enough, too... I advise him to get an aisle seat.
From Google I had identified two possible ways to get from Eastbourne to Winchester: two trains, changing at Clapham Junction, or a bus / train / train combination keeping nearer the south coast. I ignored the bus option. We are at the station with plenty of time for the one-change option.
The ticket seller looks at that option, it came up first on her screen. Very expensive, she says. A few minutes searching and she comes up with a three-train option, taking about the same total time -- for just a bit over half the price. Sounds good to me... Are you both here? she asks. And we have just four minutes to get on our first train. Easy :-)
Eastbourne to Brighton: A few stations which seem to be suburbs of Eastbourne, connected by nonstop housing. Bigger gaps, fields and farms, stations for smaller villages. Views of the Downs, to the south... We recognise two communications towers that we walked past. Then it's Brighton... Rows and rows of terrace houses. Going on for miles. Not a very inspiring sight.
Brighton to Fratton: A comfortable 25 minutes to change trains. It's a big and busy station. A four-carriage train is waiting at our platform. Everyone suddenly moves further down the platform... Our train pulls up behind the parked train. It's an hour and a half to Fratton, past lots of small village stations. We're on the Portsmouth line, Fratton is a few stops earlier.
Fratton to Winchester: A 25 minute wait, we have coffee. The next train will have a lunch trolley. Deb had made the mistake of waiting to use toilets at the station, on the grounds that they would be better, somehow, than toilets on the train. Wrong move! Toilets at the station are closed, "Due to vandalism".
We're on this third train for nearly an hour. There is no lunch trolley! The train is going to London, Waterloo... lunch may come after Winchester. At one stop we gain five more carriages, there are now ten in total. At the stop before Winchester passengers are told that they can only alight from the first four carriages, due to a short platform. A few people move briskly up the train.
And now -- we are back in Winchester. I check the GPS. Just over 1.1km to our car, left at the first b&b of our walk. We take a taxi. I say, to Giffard House, but can't remember the street name. Luckily the taxi driver knows Giffard House... We are soon there. Into our rental car. And... driving again...
We Sample a Motorway Service Area
As usual, Deb navigates. I loaded all accommodation into the GPS, Deb reads out the driving directions from the GPS. Even with a cold, Deb makes a good speaking-gps. And I can ask her to repeat if necessary.
We drive along the start of our walk. Then a familiar road that we followed to Rick Stein's. And soon, we are clear of Winchester. A few A roads, a few miles of Motorway, it's time for lunch.
Should we take a random road and find a random pub? No! We decide to eat lunch at a Motorway Service area! And it turns out to be a rather nice, clean, quite new, mini shopping area. We have a light lunch at Costas. Watch the interesting people pass by... A completely different demographic to the Downs villages. A wider mix with a more average average. And broader ethnic range. Also, completely different to home. (Including, that we have an even broader range of ethnic types. This service area is still relatively far from any major cities.)
Back on the Motorway. Past a short, slow spot, a three car accident. Off the motorway, avoid High Wycombe -- and arrive at West Wycombe.
George and Dragon: our third miss is a lucky one
We drive through the centre of the village, see the pub sign -- and can't see where to turn off. Out of the village, make a U turn, try again. We drive through the centre of the village, see the pub sign, turn off -- and various signs say, No Entry to the George & Dragon, and, Do Not Park Here.
Out of that driveway, back a bit -- and we turn into the only remaining possibility. It's a narrow opening -- through the building, the building goes over it. There are people sitting on the other side, eating and drinking -- but there are also cars, further away. We turn in, very carefully. Creep in, very carefully. Must have had a few centimetres clearance, not much more. The drinkers applaud! We breathe a sigh of relief... We're in the carpark.
Remember the "No entry" driveway? That's the easy and popular way in...
We go into the bar and ask where we go for our accommodation. The barman says, back outside and across the entrance archway. We go across. There is a private door, locked, and toilets. After some discussion, we try the barman again... Oh, accommodation! he says, I though you wanted the toilets!
Now we check in.
Our room is number one. At the end of a long, narrow, short passage. I duck every time I walk through. Our door is lower than me. (I'm not tall.) The room is -- generous :-) A four poster bed with a metre or two around it, on three sides. A large bathroom. Ceiling and walls have the Tudor-style white plaster supported by black wooden beams. The floor is somewhat wonky. An excellent room!
The only down side is that we are immediately above the kitchens. We can smell the roast of the day. (Later: Dinner is over. Our window is open to clear the air. No more smell.)
The George & Dragon is old, very old. (1600s?) And, as the sign out the front says, "Lovingly restored." Our room is large, old, clean and comfortable. The bar downstairs is neat and cosy. The outside looks very very old. All very nice :-) All very expensive.
We eat in. Deb has steak, I have chicken Cordon Bleu. Meals that would have been fancy twenty years ago... and are still excellent meals.
After dinner we walk up and down the village main street. What little there is of it :-) Lots of old and interesting buildings. Lots of through traffic. We check the signs pointing to a couple of nearby tourist traps that we will check out tomorrow.
Hours later, the sun is still up. We are relaxing. Recovering. Feeling very comfortable.
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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Agamedes Consulting
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"I feel that my enemy is anyone who would, given the power to do so, restrict individual liberty." … Chuck Pratt, 1965
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