29th of May. Off to visit some old places to keep Annette happy.

Oh, forgot to say that there were a few of the ladies of the night hanging around the front of the place where we stayed last night and the entertainment in the bar downstairs kept Annette amused whilst I had a couple. (drinks that is). Don't let anyone say that I'm not addressing Annette's education whilst on this trip. Even the police turned up and scattered about 50 under ages on the foreshore.

Today promised rain and as I hadn't been impressed with the little bit of Brighton we had seen we decided to head out of town and start visiting a few of the old places. Booked a bus ticket and Annette had about half an hour to visit an old palace in the middle of town that some queen or king or may be both by looking at it had built to impress someone. Just a little bit over the top. The Brighton Pavilion built by the Prince of Wales so Annette said. I stayed out front to guard the packs and true to her word Annette flew through it to emerge to find me true to form sitting on a chair chatting to one of the ladies at the front desk. Annette said she ran from room to room and security were keeping an eye on this mad women.

Caught the bus out of Brighton to Handcross just as it started to rain. Arrived and on with the wet weather gear and walked to visit Nymans. Found this and others like it in the garden. It is what I call a dove tree and we have tried to grow it home with no success. They were full of flower, sorry for those in the know, white bracts.

Here is just a small patch of deciduous azaleas. Look at the size of them.

Anyone for a purple leaf beech tree?

The house is not as old as it looks. The last owner to live in in extended it and had it changed to look much older inside and out. It caught fire and a large section was guttered. There was still a fair section of house to look through and worth visiting in itself.

We then walked back to town and because it was still raining decided to to catch a bus to East Grinstead to find a pub to stay in. After checking out a few I decided that this one looked promising.

Actually she is the bar girl and reminded me of my nephew's wife, Rachael. For my trouble Annette was happy not to have to share a tent with me or a bed for that matter.

The town had a few old buildings. One of these was called Clarendon House

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28th of May. In UK at last.

UK at long last. This is what we went on holidays for. Had nothing planned so just took a bus to Brighton to see what it was like. Didn't really like it that much. Couldn't see what all the fuss was about. This is the Brighton Pier.

Took Annette for a walk, see happy now. (They told me I had to take her back though.) She spent a couple of pounds on the penny machines.

Another house for the block.

Just had to walk on the pebbles. Fancy calling it a beach.

Stayed in a bit of a dive right on the beach. You nearly rolled out of bed. Anyway couldn't really wait to get out of town even if it was going to rain tomorrow.

27th of May. Off to Dieppe then the UK

We love France but the language barrier is a bit of a problem and we were looking forward to getting to the UK where it all would be a bit easier getting around. I can't really fault the French people and we have found them really helpful. We decided to walk to Dieppe but after googling the walk we decided that too much of it was through farm land. So off to the train station to catch a train to Dieppe then the ferry to the UK. This is the hotel we stayed at in Rouen.

This is me window shopping on the way to the train station. They must have been made for tourists cause the French girls that Annette pointed out to me would not fill them all that well.

Off on the train and the country along the way was very pretty. If the track had been along here we would have walked for sure. Arrived in Dieppe in no time to find us in the middle of a strike march. Flares going off, that sort of stuff. Made our way around them and left our bags at the police station and off to have a look around before the ferry ride.

The town has a large harbour, all boats and large buildings on one side. Sort of pretty in a tourist type way.

Had a walk along the foreshore and this town must be on the exact opposite side of the world to Coleraine.

This was their oldest building and I believed them. It is right in the middle of town.

On the Ferry and a photo of the coast line.

A sad goodbye to France.

Good ferry ride across the channel. Pretty flat. Before we left I had been reading about the ferries sinking and one of them had a 9 degree lean and the captain had ignored it. Check out the level of the sea on the different sides of our ferry. I was trying not to work out the degree.

I'm sitting dead in the middle. You work it out.
Arrived at New Haven late and walked to a motel we had pre booked. Oh, they sort of speak English here.

26th of May. Day in Rouen.

Up and about and spent the day looking around the old part of town. Plenty to see and do without going to far. Still have to decide what we are going to do after this. Continue to walk to the coast along the river or head up to Dieppe.
Rouen is full of old buildings.

This was an interesting place. It was where they sent all the lepers to live. Had some pretty strange carvings on the buildings.

A lot of the buildings appear to have been given the once over a few years ago and this one was being stripped back to the original.

This was an old church, they had plenty to spare, that had been turned into a museum dedicated to the iron workers of the town. I found it fascinating. The door come gate locks were incredibly complicated and beautiful. Trevor you would have just loved this place.

Just some old knockers. Heaps of them about.

Boy am I going to get it for this one, but hey she could be writing the blog, I give her enough material every day.

25th of May Some where in France

This is the caravan park. Cannot remember the name of the town but I do remember that it had the main train line running just the other side of the hedge. I think Annette spent more time hanging from the roof of the tent than asleep on the floor.

Check out what was at the bottom of the park. A lovely old pad just waiting to be fixed up.

Weather forecast is for heavy rain so since we heard the trains for most of the night we thought we may as well have a ride on one. Walked to the nearest station and told the trains didn't stop so it was off walking to the next town where we missed a train by the width of the platform. Oh well just a bit of a wait for the next one, fifteen minutes max judging by last night!!!!!! Finally caught the train and off to Rouen, I'm in the good books again.

Got to Rouen and decided to shout ourselves a old hotel and found one in the centre of the old part of town.

 

No, that's not the hotel, just one of the typical old buildings. Just like in the movies but in the flesh, so to speak. This was the view from our hotel room window.

View inside hotel room.

See all this walking is paying off.

Only rain we had was a short sharp thunderstorm with all the trimmings. At least the streets will be clean and fresh in the morning. Off to bed with legs above.

24th of May

Up early and off again out of the village and straight up (or so it seemed). The path didn't go to the top of the river valley instead was just below the ridge and was the size of a sheep track. The views were great. Looking back.

Looking forward.

Now I know I haven't got much of a head for heights but this track was something else. It may have been alright if we were not carrying large heavy packs but with them on your back you are a bit unstable at the best of times and this wasn't the best of times. That track you can see on the first photo is a lot steeper than it looks and there is nothing between you and one of those great big drops over the white cliffs. I was just kept plodding along behind Annette at a "grab her if she goes over" distance trying not to look anywhere except down at the track desperately trying to pretend that there really was something solid on my left. Guess what she does. Keeps stopping to point something out, like a STUPID flower, STUPID view, you know anything at this stage was just plain STUPID. OK, I think maybe that's her way of coping cause I sure wasn't and you couldn't consider turning around where we were, so on we go, surely it can only get better. Wrong, so wrong. Then I noticed that maybe she is not doing any better than me. Tell tale sign, her left foot is facing into the hill at a 45 degree angle. I quickly check mine. No way is it that bad. Finally get to a spot where we can stop and rest. Have a quick scout ahead and it is no better around the corner so back and a quick check of the map gives us an out up over the ridge onto farm land just a short distance back. A quick suggestion to Annette that it might be easier on her to take this track and she agrees. I'm a good bloke. Out onto farm land then into forest until we came upon a large wash area.

A bit of boring road work. Still no fences so all cropping country.

Time for a bit of a break at this old place.

Annette was just a tad tired. It had been a hard start and a long morning. I said she was just a bit prickly like these. She didn't appreciate it, I was right.

This area is both sides of the front gate and would have been a large deep pit and the fancy iron works was to keep the unwanted (and in this case the unwashed) from getting around the gate.

Further on we came to an old church that had this old house beside it. You just can't imagine how old they look.

Further along in the forest these were just growing on the road side with Lily of the valley. (We want some Melita).

Annette hugging a beech tree. Just one of a few thousand. we passed.

Finally the track crossed the river and we pitched the tent at a caravan park for the night. Not long to go and looking like rain.

23rd of May Les Anderlys

Up and about early, washing done and off on foot (of course) to see the town and the castle (again of course). This is the view from our tent. You do have to keep pinching yourself to make sure it is real.

Annette was off site seeing around the village with me tagging along.

All of a sudden things were more interesting, much more interesting. This is me site seeing.

Parts of the town were very pretty.

Nice old car but just a wee bit tight for these two.

Up to the castle and what a view down to the town and along the river. This is facing west where we will continue our walk tomorrow along the top of the ridge.

This is the view the other direction towards the caravan park.

This is still a working river and there were a number of barges going up and down.

In the middle of town there was a lovely old church. Again in need of a good clean. When new it must have been very bright and colourfully inside, it's not now but still very interesting and worth a look.

Oh, almost forgot, here is a couple of the castle ruins.