Sunny Seaford

 

Day 209 – Written by Aus aboard a ferry from Newhaven, England to Dieppe, France

 

I have to start off this entry again speaking about our little April Fool’s joke.  It turns out there were some people who did not find it so funny, and could not understand why we had gone to so much trouble for an elaborate prank.  Well of course if you know us well, you would know how much fun we had writing it and putting it all together, and how much more fun we had imagining everyone’s reactions.  The fact that some of you believed us makes it all the more enjoyable for us, and hopefully if you did fall for it you will have a sense of humour and forgive us for our twisted sense of humour.  It was great fun and we wanted it to be great fun for the readers, so hopefully for the majority of you that was indeed the case.

 

Since we last updated you on our times in China, we have continued to have a wonderful time in Seaford, East Sussex, England with family and great friends.  For those who don’t know, this is the country where Kim’s mom grew up and Kim therefore has a lot of family over here.  She has been visiting the area since she was a little girl fairly regularly, and since the two of us have been together we have both made numerous visits here over the last 10 years, including a summer spent working at Seaford Golf Club and living with Kim’s grandparents.  Spending all that time here has meant we’ve also made some great friends that we are also happy to be able to see whenever we make our way over, and this visit has also featured some good times with friends.  And as an added bonus, Kim’s sister Courtenay has joined us for a week here in her first visit to England since she was 7.  So far it’s been great showing Courtenay around Seaford.

We also continue to be incredibly lucky with the weather we are having, as England is not known for being too warm or sunny at this time of year (or any time for that matter), but it turns out we’ve had noting but beautiful sunny days.  We were worried when we were flying through Moscow and saw snow still covering the ground there, and expected to see some pretty winter-like temperatures when we hit England.  But so far we’ve been enjoying pretty balmy weather and I even sported shorts for a day, so lucky us!  The forecast is calling for a change for the worse for a few days, but as luck would have it we are off to France and the Netherlands for 5 days, and according to the forecast, can expect more sunshine upon our return.  We will likely see some cooler temperatures in Paris and Amsterdam, but nothing too bad I expect.  I’m currently writing from a ferry bound for Canadian-friendly Dieppe, that has departed conveniently from Newhaven, which is a short 4 km from Seaford where we stay.

While in Seaford we have been keeping busy of course, and have rented a little car to help us get around.  So far Kim has been doing all the driving as she’s had a lot of experience at it, but I still have ambitions to try my luck with driving standard on the opposite side of the road.  We’ve been a  bit nomadic since we arrived, as there has been low availability of rooms in town, so we’ve been splitting our time between Kim’s Uncle Bryan and Auntie Liz’s place, and the White Lion Hotel Pub & Inn, both of which we tend to spend a lot of time at anyhow.  While Seaford is not known for being a happening place, and is for the most part a retirement destination, there is still a lot going on and a lot to see.  We’ve been enjoying the outdoors and the English scenery by going out for a few walks along the seafront and over the cliffs.  The cliffs are semi-famous and are quite beautiful.  There is an area known as the Seven Sisters, which has been featured in the movie Atonement, and another famous portion called Beachy Head.  The stunning white chalk cliffs overlooking the English Channel make for dramatic scenery and a great place to hike.  Apart from visiting family and enjoying the outdoors, we’ve obviously found ourselves spending some time in the local pubs with our friends, which brings backs good memories for the two of us.  There’s something hard to beat about an authentic English Pub that has a certain charm, even if old and dark and grungy.  When you walk into one you know, there’s a certain smell and general ambience that is so typical.  Luckily for Kim and I they have banned smoking in the pubs since our last visit, so that has been nice to enjoy our time with friends smoke-free. 

Courtenay has just arrived yesterday, and was amazingly running on only 2 hours of sleep in the past 2 nights, so she was a trooper to make it through the day yesterday, and we’re now off to Paris which she is quite excited to see for her first time.  It’s been several years for Kim and I, and it will be nice to get back there again.  We probably could have waited to do a longer update that included our little Eurotrip, but I figured I may as well write now before it all got too unmanageable and it as convenient since I had the time on this ferry journty.  I will now leave you with some photos of our time in the UK thus far…..

Kim and her Uncle Bryan on one of our Seafront walks….

The famous Seven Sisters, with Beachy Head way in the background…

Kim and our friend Nick overlooking the cliffs..

Kim and I enjoying the sunshine and fresh air..

Kim and Nick again overlooking the bay…

Posers….

The Seven Sisters towering above the Sea…

Nick also enjoying the spring weather..

Nick and Kim outside the White Lion, which I suppose we could call ‘our local’.  Conveniently Nick is a live-in manager there, so he is pretty easy to track down and has been great about making time to see us.

Around Bryan and LIz’s for world-famous British hospitality and almost shameful enjoyment of their kindness.  Liz was even nice enough to wash our dirty travel laundry…god bless.  And of course we’ve enjoyed many meals in their beautiful conservatory overlooking their garden…

Brian did up a great Roast Dinner with Yorkshire… mmm! I think I’m hungry suddenly just thinking of it.

Here comes trouble…Courtenay has landed in the UK.  On her first day we kept her busy to help her body clock adjust, and we took her out for a nice walk again on the cliffs.

Kim and Courtenay posing with Seaford tucked in the background…

Two sisters en route to a view of the Seven Sisters.

Courtenay explaining to Kim the particulars of her flight into the UK….

Peering down at the sea.  You can see the Seaford seafront in the background..

Enjoying a nice meal out in the sun with Bryan & Liz at the Plough & Harrow pub in Littlington after our hike

And to keep Courtenay stimulated we popped into the White Lion to see Nick and grab a Pint. 

 

That’s all for now.  Should be more travel stories to tell after we return from our mini-trip to Europe.  Hope all is well with you and you are enjoying your own spring sunshine.

 

Cheers,

The Knotty Travellers