The XtraSuitcase

This weekend we took the Eurostar train to England to visit our Euro-friends – Dave and Allison. 

We had a great visit.  Train rides are my favorite mode of transportation in Europe.  It is so easy.  You carry your suitcase on, find your seat and enjoy the ride.  Well, first you find your seat and hope it faces the front.  I cannot ride backwards and you cannot reserve seats going forward – so it is always pot-luck if your seats face forward.  There are usually enough empty seats so you can move.  I love to watch the Belgium/French/English countryside whisk by the big picture windows in the train.  Everything is so lush and green right now.  I easily get lost daydreaming when we ride the train.

It is amazing how quickly we got from Brussels to London – 2 hours.  We went through the Chunnel, a 31.4 mile undersea rail tunnel linking the United Kingdom and France, running beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. It is the second longest undersea tunnel in the world, after Japan’s Seikan Tunnel.

Dave and Allison live in Horsham, a quintessentially quaint English village about an hour south of London.  Horsham is a Historic Market Town thought to have been settled in 947. The town had connections to the sale of horses and the name is believed to be derived from "Horse Ham", a settlement where horses were kept.  They have a lovely home.  Quite large by European standards. 

Allison picked us up at the train station and we headed out to their local pub for lunch.  D had the traditional "fish & chips" England is so well known for.  And of course a beer.  After lunch we headed out to Beachy Head, on the south coast.  It was an hour drive.

The name Beachy Head has nothing to do with beach, it transpired from the original French word meaning Beautiful Headland.

The cliffs were absolutely stunning.  It is the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, rising to 530 ft above sea level. 

The chalk was formed in the Cretaceous period when the area was under the sea, 65 million years ago and earlier. During the Cenozoic Era the chalk was uplifted, and was later eroded to form the dramatic cliffs. 

The light house you see in the distance was built in 1828.  If you look closely, you can see a few people at the top of the cliff.  It gives you a better feel for the scale – how big of a drop it is.

What was so amazing is that there was nothing to stop people from going over the edge.  As soon as we arrived, Allison told us to be careful and not go too close to the edge.  So we both ran as close to the edge as we could….To make Allison nervous, I danced on the edge:

 

and then tried to get the perfect photo from the edge:

D really got her when he climbed over the edge and hung from one hand:

It was so funny to see Allison’s face.

No people…….he was NOT really hanging on the edge of the cliff.  We call this one "trick" photography  :  )

The rain was moving in so we headed back to the house for a pre-dinner drink.  A new one for us, a very common British drink – Pimm’s.  You mix one part Pimm’s with three parts lemonade (which is what we refer to as 7 up or sprite), ice cubes, a wedge of cucumber, mint leaves and slices of lemon, orange and strawberry.  It was sooooo good we bought a bottle to bring home.

After a delicious dinner at home, we headed to the local pub, the Malt Shovel.  On the weekends they have live bands.  This week was a guy who was singing pop songs.  He was actually very good.

There were MANY interesting characters at the pub.  D&A were able to tell us stories about each of the "regulars".  Hmmmmm….with them being able to tell so many stores about the "regulars", doesn’t that make them "regulars"?

 

After several rounds, we were singing along.  Allison was even dancing along with the locals.

 

A fun night indeed…..I might have had a little too much to drink as D had to carry me back to D&A’s house. 

The next day Dave drove us to Brighton Beach, a popular resort area with pebble beaches, lots of restaurants and fun shopping.

It is a very artsy community.  We did a little shopping and had lunch.  Here are the boys in front of the little seafood shack where we ate sandwiches.

   

We had some unusual new items – cockles and whelks and D tasted an interesting one with many legs:

We were lucky and caught a sunny morning, but as always in England, the rain moved in.  D&A had purchased tickets to an outdoor event and we were going to have a picnic dinner, but it was raining too hard.  So we had an indoor picnic (they have a great sun room so it was almost like we were outside) and watched the Olympics.

And I have to share the photo of D&A’s cat – White Cat – he is a beauty.  Regal.  He seemed to really like me taking his photo.

We did not have much time on Sunday as our train left from London at 2:30.  We did walk around Horsham and did a little shopping.  Unlike Belgium, several stores are open on Sunday.  For my shopping gals……they have what is equivalent to the dollar store but is called the everything pound store.  A bit more expensive than one dollar as a pound is equal to two dollars.  A fun store!

and last but not least….D&A’s adorable car – the mini-coop.  It was very strange with the driver on the right, but both did a great job driving all around town.  I was the one who kept going to the wrong side to get in!

Want to see a few more photos?  Click on the Horsham Album on the left hand side of our main page.