I have had a great week so far in Hastings, East Sussex....
On Wednesday, I did a lot of walking!! I walked from St. Leonards on the seacoast where my B&B is, to Hastings. I took a lift (I thought a lift was an elevator and I have always heard this called a funicular!) up to the West Hill. There are two hills, you guessed it, East and West Hill and the old town of Hastings lies in between the two hills.
The lift to West Hill on the left
and Old Towne Hastings taken from the West Hill with East Hill in the background and English Channel on the right. It is so beautiful and seems like time has stood still here. Here are some pics from my Hastings visit.
Detective Foyle's house (left), street scene from the show(center)
and fishing huts from Foyle's War (right).
Pie and Mash for lunch at a great place and a street of shops in Hastings. Fun day!
Oh by the way, I have a rental car.....a Kia Ria....I haven't had an accident yet ....I did run into the curb on the left side of the car a couple of times on the way from London. When I got to St. Leonards, I had to parallel park in front of my hostess' apartment. I'm good at parallel parking, however from the wrong side, it took me 3 times to do it :D Not to mention it is a.six.speed.manual.shift.
and Old Towne Hastings taken from the West Hill with East Hill in the background and English Channel on the right. It is so beautiful and seems like time has stood still here. Here are some pics from my Hastings visit.
Detective Foyle's house (left), street scene from the show(center)
and fishing huts from Foyle's War (right).
Pie and Mash for lunch at a great place and a street of shops in Hastings. Fun day!
Oh by the way, I have a rental car.....a Kia Ria....I haven't had an accident yet ....I did run into the curb on the left side of the car a couple of times on the way from London. When I got to St. Leonards, I had to parallel park in front of my hostess' apartment. I'm good at parallel parking, however from the wrong side, it took me 3 times to do it :D Not to mention it is a.six.speed.manual.shift.
Thursday, I took off in my Kia Ria and drove east of Hastings to the county of Kent and the town of Dover. It is on the English Channel and faces France. It is at the narrowest part of the English Channel and is called the Strait of Dover. I have heard of the White Cliffs of Dover all my life....I'm not sure why I had heard of it, but I was excited to see it. I got some pictures, none of which are great, but I found one on Wikipedia that was taken from the ocean.
According to Wikipedia, The cliffs are composed mainly of soft, white chalk with a very fine-grained texture, composed primarily of coccoliths, plates of calcium carbonate formed by coccolithophores, single-celled planktonic algae whose skeletal remains sank to the bottom of the ocean during the Cretaceous and, together with the remains of bottom-living creatures, formed sediments. Flint and quartz are also found in the chalk.
According to Wikipedia, The cliffs are composed mainly of soft, white chalk with a very fine-grained texture, composed primarily of coccoliths, plates of calcium carbonate formed by coccolithophores, single-celled planktonic algae whose skeletal remains sank to the bottom of the ocean during the Cretaceous and, together with the remains of bottom-living creatures, formed sediments. Flint and quartz are also found in the chalk.
I also wandered around Dover Castle and it was very beautiful. It is a medieval castle said to be the largest castle in England, was built in the 12th century and is described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history.
I stopped at a Coffee truck at the Dover port and struck up a conversation with the barista I asked her if she was from Dover and she said she was from St. Margaret's which is a little village east of Dover. She asked if I knew who Ian Fleming was and of course I said yes! She said he is also from St. Margaret's and he used to take the bus to London every weekend and when he wrote the James Bond books, mostly on the bus ride, he nicknamed Bond 007 after the bus route. Very interesting...wonder if it is true!
After I left Dover, I drove to Canterbury, Kent to see the Canterbury Cathedral. It is one of oldest (est.597) and most famous Christian structures in England. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Congregation. Remember your history.....Thomas Becket was murdered in the Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.
Today, Friday, I drove west from Hastings to Eastbourne. The English call it 'heaven's waiting room' because there are so many retirees....HaHaHa. It is a nice town also on the English Channel. There are two beautiful cliffs there called Beachy Head and Seven Sisters. They are actually bigger than the White Cliffs of Dover and have the same 'chalk' face. It was so cold and windy up on the cliff and foggy.
Left: Beachy Head with
lighthouse
Right: Seven Sisters
At one of the breaks in Seven Sisters, called Birling Gap, the Cuckmere River enters the English Channel. Before it gets to the sea, the picture below is what it looks like. So pretty!
I also went to Lewes and Seaford....no, not in Delaware....in Sussex, England!
I had lunch in heaven's waiting room......Fish and Chips!
Ok, tomorrow, I go to lunch and tour of Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey). I am really looking forward to this.....more later!
You're just like Bourdain or Nat. Geo. Thanks!
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