Morgan and Jane's EXCELLENT Adventure: 20

At the pub up the road from David and Justine's house. Sorry Pete and Barb, this is only photo I have taken (so far) of David and we have none of Justine. We will take more soon, I promise.

In England, and closer to the motor home and the real meat and three veg of the trip - it's all been entrees so far.

We arrived to find that David (Jane's brother) had sent a car - not the stretched Hummerzine I had hoped for but much more fun that battling with pubic transport and our luggage. Thanks Dave!

David and Justine and little Hudson live in a picturesque country village called Turner's Hill which ticks all the important boxes, narrow winding roads, old houses, rolling hillsides and ye old pubs. Very, very English - we even found a farm shop selling organic everything on our first walk. Of course the guy was married to a Kiwi from Napier (close to my Dad's side of the family)....did I mention it is a small world?

David and Justine's house - the terrace on the left with the (hopefully) 2.25m x 6.9m driveway

Our first major outing from there was to Brighton, which was great fun. It has a great mix of grand old civic buildings and promenades, very, very funky and quite bohemian small lanes full of different kinds of shops and food outlets - and the seaside. You can see how it would once would have been very impressive, but is now kind of cheesy. Very enjoyable though - I particularly enjoyed seeing Jane's reaction to an English 'beach'.

We also stopped in at the Royal Pavilion which was a sort of Summer House for King George the something. The whole thing was done in an Indian/Oriental theme in the 1800's and is very impressive - bizarre in some ways and equal parts hideous/beautiful/amazing. One of the most impressive interiors to a building I have ever seen.

Royal Pavilion

Royal Pavilion - inside. No photos allowed, so this is a photo of a postcard, which is cheating.

Savour those glasses of champagne, for they will cost as much as the rest of lunch and the other drinks put together....

On Brighton Pier

Jane looking at the 'sand' at the 'beach'. Bit different to Auzzie.

The next day I managed to wake myself up at 4:00am by ingesting the 'daytime' pills of the cold medication I had been taking - so a nice early start. We took David's advice and took a pub walk, which traces a circular route through the countryside starting and finishing at a council refuse processing plant (kidding, a pub). We had Ploughman's Lunch, which made him very cross...

We also visited Standen House, an 1800's house which was one of the early buildings in the Arts and Crafts movement, and William Morris was part of the design team. It may sound lame, but the wallpaper was AMAZING! We got in free because we joined the National Partnerships Trust. It was when the ticket girl laughed a bit that we started to suspect we were not in their target demographic.

What's the storey with these old school fences? They are cooooool!

The best thing about a pub walk - the pub.

The only photo we have of Standen House which isn't cluttered up by old people falling over their strollers.

Look at this vase.....it's HIDEOUS. Must be worth a fortune.

On the 24th David kindly lent us his Mini and we went to visit Frant, and Bodiam Castle. I lived in England for 4 years when I was young, and had my first year of school in Frant. I've been back before but it is always interesting to see how it has changed.

We used to spend a lot of time at Bodiam Castle as well, and I was relieved to see it looks as amazing as I remember it. Apparently it is one of the most photographed castles in the world (how do they know? Online surveys I presume), and I think you can see why. It fits neatly into one photo frame...

We also had our first trip into London. We finally went up the London Eye after having just looked at the queue every other time we have visited - and we also went into Southwark Cathedral. Note to travellers, all the really old graves are in the floor, we found a few from the 1500's. We met Sarah and her friend Amanda, and spent the night at Sarah's lovely city pad.

...and that brings us up to date. It has been particularly nice seeing David, Justine and Hudson on their home turf - and cruising up to the pub for a roast lunch and a couple of pints on a Sunday afternoon is really what England is all about.

By the next post we will have picked up the motor home! We have had some hassles sorting out insurance but it is fixed now. Soon we will be on the road!

This was me and Olly went to school...

....and this is where we used to live - in the bit round the side of this house you can't see from this angle. The Rector had the nice bit.

This is the Church us heathens helped to look after which was part of the deal of getting the house in the last picture. It was great fun to play amongst the gravestones and steal the odd thing from the tombs.