On Monday we went to Arundel for the first time - a beautiful, if a little twee, place which reminded me a bit of Farnham. And did I tell you that I once met the Duke and Duchess at an event I (well, British Offset really, but I was the boss!) was sponsoring at Windlesham School? No? Well I did! And very charming they both were. Anyway, after a quick mooch around and a coffee at Belinda's Tea Rooms (very C16 - beams and home baking) we drove up to the car park in Houghton Forest for a picnic lunch preparatory to setting foot on the South Downs Way for the first time. Lunch was totally ruined by wasps, which seemed to be plaguing everywhere we went but once we'd finished eating and swatted them away we had a lovely five or so mile circular walk down to Amberley Station and back. The weather was beautiful and the views were just superb. The view below was taken from the terrace at the back of the "George and Dragon" at Houghton where, bless them, even though they were closing as we arrived at 1500 they allowed us to buy a drink and have it outside. I can't remember the last time I came across a pub that wasn't open all day, although I do believe that they only close on Mondays. We'd just traversed the left to right slope in the picture and almost fell over a stoat or a weasel as we did so - it was just too quick for a positive ID, but was definitely a member of the mustelidae family.
Not such a nice day, the next one. However, having let the morning rain clear it was off to Chichester for a browse around the shops. Now Chichester is a beautiful city with lots of chi chi emporia but, on a summer holiday weekday, not much sign of chi chi people. My favourite was a fat, tattooed woman of unprepossessing mien with her belly hanging over her leggings (or they could have been jeggings, I suppose) with a fag gripped between her teeth and wearing a much too tight vest (vest - with her figure? UUUrrrgghhhh!) bearing the logo "World Cup WAG". Dream on, love, dream on. The Waterstone's on West Street is a proper bookshop and, much to the benefit of the rest of us, is probably not much frequented by the aforementioned wannabe WAG. It has a lovely cafe on the first floor and we had lunch there at a window table with a fantastic view of the cathedral. Service was lovely and friendly but sloooooooooooow and we had to wait over half an hour for a soup and a pate. The latter was gorgeous but the accompanying "hunk" of granary bread was about three inches of brown baguette and nowhere near enough to do the pate justice. After that, we drove down to the Sidlesham Quay side of Pagham Harbour but were only able to grab a short stroll before the rain came down again. I love the desolation of the place and it was a shame that the visitor centre had closed early, doubtless because of the weather. I was only slightly depressed by the sightings poster in the window which had listed on it, among lots of interesting birds, a "mole - dead". Poor thing - I've only ever seen one mole myself and that was way back when and also dead. Anyway, we drove back via Sidlesham to have a look at the Crab and Lobster, where we may eat one day for a special occasion. I say "may" because our last posh restaurant trip to The Hambrough in Ventnor was a disaster, as my TripAdvisor review here shows, and I may well just pick somewhere that's not quite so serious for my next important event.
Day three found us in Bosham and Fishbourne. We had a wander round the former and a quick (very quick - exit stage left, pursued by wasps!) al fresco coffee before putting on our walking gear for a nice flat stroll to the former and back. Bosham was gorgeous but beginning to get really busy as we set off for our stroll (dodging the incoming tide as we did so) and I was glad to get away from the swarms - of people and/or wasps - for some wide open vistas with distant views of Chichester cathedral. We had lunch - quiche for me and soup (again!) for Diane - at the Lime Cafe at the Roman Palace site (no, we only went for lunch, we're saving the visit for next time when we'll drive there). Now, this was much better VFM than Waterstone's and really tasty but we had to wait 40 minutes to get our food - I know the pace of life in the country is slower, but the really do need to do better.
On our final day we had a walk down to the beach at Pagham in beautiful sunshine and went for lunch in Amberley which as been, quite rightly, described "as one of the most attractive of all downland villages". The Black Horse is a really quaint old English pub with sheep bells on the ceiling, a part stone flagged floor and more beams and interesting bits than you can shake a stick at .... and yet, even though it was busy, somewhat lacking in atmosphere. Maybe it was because, like us, lots of people had driven there and were partaking of non-alcoholic beverages (great ginger beer, by the way!) or maybe it was the weather. Whatever, a chicken sandwich and a ploughman's took 45 minutes to be delivered. Once again, simply not good enough, but not sufficiently bad to totally spoil our trip to Amberley. Walking around it is quite delightful with some beautiful cottages, a lovely church and an amazing castle which, sadly, can only be visited by guests of the hotel which now occupies it.And so to home via Sainsbury's, and back to earth with a bump!
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