Day 2 Arundel and Winchester

Sunday January 20th, 2008
We woke up and actually saw the sun for about 5 minutes at breakfast, but luckily we didn't have any rain all day. We asked about castles on the coast of the English Channel and were given a great gem, Arundel Castle. It was unfortunately closed for tours (still lived in by the Duke of Norfolk), but amazing! We spent the morning walking along the still filled moat and up and down the streets as it sits way up on a hill. Following that and making our way around at least 20 roundabouts we headed South to a town on the English Channel and ended up in Worthing. What was so neat about this is that the entire beach was closed pier and all because they had recently had a freighter of timber sink and lose all its cargo. There were huge piles of timber up and down the coast as far as the eye could see. The news just reported that Worthing Beach was the worst with 10 miles of timber piles. Frank remembers the story in the news. They were doing major clean up - but hey I got to see the Channel. We had fish and chips FINALLY...love the malt vinegar, Frank loved the gravy and fries...sounds gross, but was surprisingly good. We did a bit of shopping on the way back to the car park and plugged into
our less than reliable NeverLost GPS directions to Winchester. They were having services at the Winchester Cathedral so we couldn't tour it, but it was open enough to see the grave of my favorite author, Jane Austen and the memorial to her - her father was a Reverend at the cathedral while she was growing up. It was lovely to stop for a moment and hear the organ and choir sing. Frank was in heaven hearing how an organ is supposed to sound :). We walked a bit to Winchester University and saw the ruins of Woyerth (spelling) Castle. After a long day of driving we bought snacks at Sainsbury (prawn flavored crisps are nasty - I'll stick to salt and vinegar thank you) and witnessed a little old lady chewing out a guy. It was the funniest thing wish I could have understood half of it! We ate dinner in the lounge of the hotel...miss grilled ham and cheese...not the same like home - but the sticky toffee pudding was awesome! So Frank is off tommorrow to work finally and I'm tagging along to tour the University and take pictures. He's afraid I'll be bored, but I brought 5 books - I'll have a blast!