Friday, December 31, 2010
9:55pm
Southampton, England
I must first apologize for these blogs being a bit late in posting – I haven’t had Internet access for the past few days… Which is nice for a change, actually. I think I’ve been needing to be disconnected from the world for a while.
Most of today was spent in traveling. We left our inn in Wye after a delicious English breakfast, and made our way to the Wye Downs, or the Devil’s Kneading Trough, for a quick photo stop. The story (or at least one of the many out there) goes that the Devil tripped over a church on his way to stop in the pilgrims on their pilgrimage through the English countryside, fell and landed on his knee, carving a large valley or bowl in the land. It’s quite a lovely spread of rolling green land covered in a thin veil of mist and fog. Again, really refreshing and calming.
From there we made our way towards the roads following the coastline and drove to Rye in East Sussex. On the way we passed many small towns and villages, all of them filled with their own histories and national relevancies. I love being in a country were there is beauty and antiquity everywhere.
When we arrived in Rye we parked the car and made our way up towards the center of town. The streets are all cobbled and uneven, and there are lovely old buildings around every corner. We actually ran into a very old school friend of my mum’s – from back when my mum was in primary school! Heather and her husband up till recently used to run a restaurant called The Flushing Inn in Rye, and as we passed by the old restaurant, we wondered how funny it would be if we ran into them. And alas! As we walked around the corner we literally bumped into them as they came out of their door. After the grown-ups caught up and said their dues, we continued along the wonky roads for some more sight seeing and picture-taking. At lunchtime we popped into a lovely old teahouse called Simon The Pieman for tea and sandwiches, and after that we looked in a few shops before heading towards the docks of Rye.
After a long drive through even more gorgeous, serene old towns and villages, we arrived at our hotel here in Southampton. Because it’s New Year’s Eve, the only booking we could find was at the Holiday Inn Express, so no cute little B&B tonight. We did, however, drive a little way to a pub called The Ship Inn for dinner and drinks. It was quite a different atmosphere from the pubs we’ve been to so far, and the locals are certainly very different themselves. Just goes to show the microcosms that make up the macrocosms. And it exists everywhere.
I can’t believe tomorrow marks the beginning of another year and another decade. Time is flying, but I am excited for this fresh start. So Happy New Year from England, everyone. Cheers xoxo
Phillipa
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