<< Nerigean, France or London >> Next to Notts (Me) or London (Leb)
Thursday 16th May - Saturday 29th May (14 Nights) from the South Coast to the Home Counties of England.
Summary: Back together and with wheels again, we set off for an epic tour of blighty, starting in the cute Sussex village of Alfriston, where we had the pleasure and privilege of meeting Vernon Reynolds and hearing his witty talk about Piltdown Man. Then we had the short drive to Brighton where we met up with some good old friends. Then it was along to the New Forest and through to spend a day in Bournemouth, where we witnessed the climax of the Premier League season. From there, we drove all the way to Cornwall to meet Leb's Uncle Barry and spent the night in Plymouth. After that we headed back east, stopping a couple of nights in Lyme Regis before staying with friends near Alton in Hampshire where we tried to find - and succeeded - the church where we got married 38 years ago. After that we headed towards Buckinghamshire, where we lived together for the first 17 years or so of our marriage. We met some old friends and then ended our adventure together in the gorgeous city of Oxford where we split up again. I met up with primatologist Simon Bearder and had a great pub crawl before heading off on my own again to Nottingham, whilst Leb spent some time with her special friends.
Driving South to Alfriston to see Vernon Reynolds' talk about Piltdown Man (Thursday, 16th May)
Day 69 - Having met up with Leb and picked up our hire car for the next seven weeks, we headed away from London, down the M23 towards Sussex by the sea, and our next destination - the cute little village of Alfriston.
Why Alfriston? It's the home of Vernon Reynolds, a quite famous primatologist (about on a par with Jane Goodall ) who had very kindly agreed to participate in some of the WHAT Talks series I ran for a couple of years about Waterside Hypotheses of Human Evolution.
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| Vernon Reynolds |
Vernon wasthe chief editor of the most balanced book ever published about the so-called Aquatic Ape Hypothesisis way back in 1987 and it was he that inspired my kind of middle-of-the-road approach to the subject with his very even handed and fair assessment of the relativel merits of the idea.
Rather than give a formal talk, like most guest speakers did, Vernon and I had a quite lengthy conversation on the subject and then in Melvyn Bragg "In Our Time" style we had a chat about what we missed and then I summarised the whole thing and published the video as a kind of topic in itself, after which the small audience who attended on line could then chat about it.
Here they are, if anyone is interested...
Anyway, it was lovely to be back on the road again, driving through the lovely green and pleasant lands of England.
Vernon had kindly arranged for one of his friends who runs a bed & breakfast to put us up for a couple of nights. It was a lovely little cottage, converted from a barn. It was a really tranquil spot and having arrived we quickly unpacked and set off to explore a few village pubs.
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| Our quirky new home for a couple of nights |
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| Vernon's House almost next door |
It didn't take us long to find The Star, where I had a nice pint of Harvey's Dark Ale.
I had a magnificent pint of Tommy Taylor's Landlord Bitter and a lovely grilled trout with sticky toffee pudding for pudding.
From there it was a short walk to St Andrew's Church Hall where Vernon and his many friends were getting ready to learn all about Piltdown Man.
Vernon is an active member of the local historical society and so the Piltdown Man Hoax had double interest as the controversial fraudulent "fossil" (an orang utan skull combined with a huamn) was found onbly about 17 miles away.
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| From Alfriston to Piltdown, just 16.6 miles away. |
The talk was really entertaining and informative, told in Vernon's lovely English wit.
Here are a few video clips of his talk. Apologies for the poor sound quality. We were sat at the back of the hall.
After the very well received talk, it was back to the George for a couple of pint and then a very convenient short walk back to our room. What a lovely day!
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| Dear Vernon with his wife Frankie in the George |
Full Day in Alfriston (Friday, 17th May)
Day 70 - We had two nights in the lovely, quiet village of Alfriston and so, after seeing Vernon give his talk we had a full day to plan and think about.
Vernon popped around, he lived literally across the jitty from us, early in the morning to check what our plans were for the day. We said we planned to go for a walk and explore the village. He offered to drive us down to the coast, not far away, to see the seven sisters and we gratefully accepted.
So, after a bit of breakfast made on our kitchen stove we set off.
We walked through gorgeous English countryside on a perfectly pleasant day, toward the cutest little church (The Curch of the Good Shepherd in Lullington).
Brighton & Hove (Saturday, 18th May)
Day 71. We were up and away from Alfriston and decided to drive to Brighton via the seaside town of Peacehaven, a town we'd only just found out about the night before in the George by one of Vernon's German friends who would be giving a future talk for their local historical society.
Peacehaven has a reputation for being a bit of a dump these days but it has an interesting and honourable history. We ended up staying there for a couple of hours to do a laundry wash.
First, it was the traditional "Goodbye Video"...
Peacehaven is a small place and once we found a street to park the car whlist we visited a laundry we had some time to kill, so we walked down to the coast and took in the view.
Peacehaven was the brainchild of Charles Neville, a London entrepreneur. In 1916, he bought a swathe of chalky cliff-top farmland between Brighton and Newhaven. After World War I, he marketed the land heavily—through national newspaper competitions offering free plots to working-class families. The name "Peacehaven" was chosen via one of these competitions, supposedly in reference to the hope for peace after the war, it was mocked in the press as a shanty town—“Plotland” was the pejorative term used for places like it. But over the decades it evolved into a respectable seaside suburb, if never exactly fashionable. Its cliff-top location offers spectacular views, and its grid layout is still visible today. Peacehaven marks the official point where the Greenwich Meridian meets the English Channel, commemorated with an obelisk. The meridian was slightly realigned since, but the monument remains.
We drove through Brighton straight to Hove, where we had booked a place to stay the night. The very trusting hosts had set it up so that we could get access to the key to the house and go in and unpack in our bedroom. They had a dog and at least one cat that were all very friendly.
We unpacked and then quickly set off to walk from Hove back into Brighton.
It's a fair old walk along the prom, prom, prom, almost 5 km, but it provided a very pleasant pastime for the afternoon.
The Grand Hotel, where we spent the night to celebrate my 10,000th way back in the UK days.
Of course, it was soon beer O'Clock and we naturally navigaeted to the oldest pubs in Brighton.
The Cricketer's looks lovely from the outside, but a bit like an old brotherl from within.
After that, we headed back to the sea front and took another walk down memory lane by going onto Brighton Pier.
Then, it was time to head up to our old friends Julia and David for a delicious meal. We timed it perfectly, so that we could visit a couple of pubs on the way.
We had a pint in Ye Old King and Queen, where I watched Oxford United suprisingly beat Bolton Wanderers 2-0 at Wembley to clinch promotion to the Championship.
After a lovely evening we then set off with the intention of catching a bus back to Hove. Murphy's Law intervened though and a combination of ignorance (not realising which routes ran on the promenade) and bad luck - we must have just missed three buses - we ended up walking the whole way back.
My feet were killing me when we finally turned in. I felt guilty that the hosts had shown us so much kindness and hospitality and we hadn't even seen them.
Premier League Finale in Bournemouth (Sunday, 19th May)
Day 72 ~ We set off from Hove, having at least spent some time chatting with our lovely hosts there before leaving.
We basically set off west, heading along the south coast of England. Quite soon, the spectacular site of Arundel Castle came into view but we decided against stopping as we had made arrangements to have lunch with an old Lithuanian friend of ours, Ingrid Brocklesby nee Petrauskaite.
As we hurtled along the M27 towards Southampton, I must admit a cheeky plan emerged in my mind - to drive into the city to pay a quick stop at StMary's Stadium, home of Southampton FC, a ground I have never been to. But as time was ticking, I thought better of it and continued to loop around the city onto the other side of it and then down towards the pub we'd arranged to meet Ingrid in - in the New Forest.
We soon found ourselves motoring through it. This wasn't the first time we'd been here and I must admit, it's always a bit disappointing to me. I remember seeing the vast area of it shaded in green it on a map of England back in Kirkby library when I was a kid. Having been regularly taken to Theives Wood in my father's little blue inva car, I had fallen in love with forests and fantasised about really big ones that you could easily get lost in. The New Forest sounds so wonderful and looks so big on paper, but when you actually arrive there, you're quickly confronted by the fact that most of the trees have long gone.
At least we did drive though some beautiful English countryside and the picturesque town of Beaulieu.
Soon we'd arrived at our next destination, The Turfcutter's Arms, where we had a great Sunday lunch and a lovely catch up with Ingrida.
From there, it wasn't too far to complete our 100 mile trip to Bournemouth and the Riviera Hotel. I was keen to get there asap so that we could get out and watch the final day of the Premier League season.
We quickly found a pub that was showing EPL climax, the Westbourne Hotel. Shame about Man City winning the title again (four times on the trot is getting so boring) but at least Forest were safe for another season.
Forest won at Burnley but they were already safe so it was of academic interest. The really big games concerned Arsenal and Manchester City. If City lost at home to West Ham and Arsenal beat Everton at the Emirates, then the title would have gone to the North London club. Of course, that didn't happen and City sealed their 4th consecutive title, something totally unprecidented in the English league.
After the matches we set off to the town center to the pier and then circled back to the hotel along the beach.
Down to Cornwall to see Uncle Barry. Night in Plymouth (Monday, 20th May)
Day 73 ~ This was yet another memorable day that started with a morning dip in the pool at the hotel we were staying at. I picked this place because of having a pool so we didn't want to miss out.
We stopped for a very nice fully English breakfast at the Grazing Cow cafe, on the way.
It was a long (3 and a half hour) drive to Looe in Cornwall, but it was worth it.
I'd never been to this cute little coastal town before. Such a picturesque spot.
It was a real pleasure spending the afternoon with sweet Auntie Val and Uncle Barry. It's so lovely sharing family memories and pouring over photo albums.
For the second time in three days I was shown a wonderful model railway set. It's one of Uncle Barry's great pastimes these days.
Auntie Val is also quite an artist and their house is decorated with many of her works of art.
The host of our little hotel was, bizarrely, also from Notts, and knew Kirkby-in-Ashfield very well. We set off for a walk around the Hoe finishing off with good Cod & Chips (very greedy, but only a small portion between two!) and a pint of Doombar.
A day and a night in Lyme Regis. (Tuesday, 21st May)
Day 74 ~ Having woken up in Plymouth, it was a case of driving back, past Dawlish and Exeter, back to Devon and the famous old coastal town of Lyme Regis and its amazingly fossil rich cliffs, home of Mary Anning.
Our Bed & Breakfast, Lyme Townhouse, was lovely except it has no parking so we parked oposite to make sure we had a room key and then drove away to find a parking place. Later we returned and then set off to explore.
First stop, of course, was Mary Anning's abode. It has been beautifully made up for the millions of tourists who must visit every year. Being on a budget, we didn't actually go in, but we did have a good look at her statue overlooking the spectacular coast.
Then it was time to go down to the beach itself and see if we could find some fossils of our own. No such luck, but there were a few groups of paleontologically orientated tourist groups with obviously the same goal in mind.
Next, we headed back to town via the old Normal Church where Mary Anning is buried.
Back into town, I soon got another hankering for FoisDay 75 ~ Lovely brekkie in Lyme Regis th
After that we had a walk along "The Cobb" (what we call a "groin" here in Australia - bizarre) and then a nice pint of ale in the appropriately named Cobb Arms before heading back to our B & B.
I left Leb to watch some tely whilst I ventured back into town to sample some more ale in an old English pub called the Volunteer Inn. I was sat at the bar having a pretty good pint (but not the best, it has to be said) of Timmy Taylor's Landlord whilst the tiny bar filled up with a few locals.
The conversation soon drifted onto immigration and the "news" that England was about to become totally run by muslims. Blokes in a pub are not the best source of news but they do give you a bit of a finger on the pulse of what people are saying. I wanted to but in with my usual... "I am the son of two immigrants who came to England without a penny and not speaking a word of English, but here I am, culturally as English as you can get, supin' Timmy Taylor's having just had a big plate of fish & chips. Honeslty... you have nothing to fear, chaps." But I was too much of a coward and let the oportunity slip.
Drive back to Alton, Hampshire and Judy & Paul's. (Wednesday, 22nd May)
Day 75 ~ We had a magnificnet breakfast at our B&B in Lyme Regis and then we set off for Salisbury to finally get new SIMs for our phones, see the Cathedral and where the Skripals got poisoned with novichok.
These were the benches in question...
After that we had a quick stroll through to see the Cathedral and its famous spire - the one that the Russian agents said they'd come to see as tourists.
After that it was onto our dear friends, Judy & Paul and their lovely son Rob who live near Alton, where Leb and I got married 38 years ago. It was good to finally catch up over a delicious meal and some great beers.
Day out in Winchester. (Thursday, 23rd May)
Day 76 ~ Today was Judy's birthday. We has a lovely day out in Winchester, starting at the statue to Alfred the Great, walking along the River Itchen to Wolvesey Castle and then to the Cathedral, stoping for some delicious lunch and couple of nice pints of English Ale.
But first, it was a great relief to finally get The Birches booking sorted out.
Just before entering the grounds of Wolvesey Castle, we saw surely the fastest lawn mowing in the world!
On the way, we passed by Jane Austen's old house.
Then we visited the cathedral...
At last, it was beer-o-clock and we headed off to yet another good old English pub in the center of town... The Royal Oak
Then it was bye bye Winchester and back to Judy & Paul's for a fabulous birthday dinner for Judy, expertly prepared by chef guru, Paul.
I feel a bit guilty because I did, kind of, encourage quite a lot of drinking. Paul and Judy, see, had these bottles of Cheery Vodka and Warnink's Advocaat and that made me feel very noistalgic. Suffice to say, a lot of classic old favourite songs were played and when we finally went to bed in the early hours we slept very soundly indeed.
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| Happy Birthday, Judy!!! |
English Winery Tour - Hattingley Valley. (Friday, 24th May)
Day 77 ~ The next day, after shaking off a two-star hangover, we headed off to sample some English wine at the nearby Hattingley Valley Winery. Paul and Judy had booked a wine tour. It was, yet another, wonderful day.
Hattingley are one of many relatively new wineries in the UK. Apparently, climate change is causing the owners of the Champagne growing regions in Northern France to buy up vinyards in southern England as they have more potential for development in an ever warmer Europe.
Later on, we had a lovely supper in another old English village pub called The Sun Inn. Paul took me on a great walk to it, across the countryside, where we saw some amazing wildlife. A couple of nice pints ended the day, and our stay, perfectly.
Nostalgic visit to Sodyna and F.A. Cup Final at Elly & Rob's. (Saturday, 25th May)
Day 78 ~ After sad goodbyes at Paul & Judy's, we decided, as we were in the right part of world, to do a bit of nostalgic searching. Alton is actually where we signed the forms when we decided to get married. We wanted to have the wedding reception at nearby Headley Park, in Bordon. A place much better known and loved as Lietuvijų Sodyba, the Lithuanian community's wonderful country home that hundreds of British Lithuanians lknew so well in the 1950s through to the 1990s. Back in 1986, we found a nearby Catholic church where we could have the ceremony.
So, the first destination for the day, was to visit Sodyba and see what was left of it after it had been sadly sold off by DBLS (Didžosios Britanijos Lietivijų Sajunga - The Lithuanian Association of Great Britain.) Then, we hoped to find the church where it actually happened - a place we had not been to since that lovely day, 38 years ago.
It was a heartbraking trip to Sodyba. This place invokes so many wonderful memories, perhaps the best was the moment I saw Lesley for the first time. I was sat in the hall behind a desk taking registrations for the weekend event the Lithuanian "Youth" Association had organised. It was called "Lithex" and I was the "recruitment officer." I'd sent out a mail shot to a lot of second generation Lithuanians all over the UK and one of those who was sufficiently interested to attend as a result was my future wife. It was like a brilliant ray of sunshine lit up the room when she came in. It was absolutely love at first sight for me. For her, not really, but she got there in the end!
It had been Lithuanian community's country retreat for about 50 years and my father had been a shareholder and had helped decorate some of the rooms when it was bought in the mid 1950s. But mismanagement and an aging community has taken its toll and it had been sold off quite a few years before. We wondered what it would be like today - hoping that it might be under new ownership and we could, at least, go in and have a drink and a walk around the grounds. No such luck. It was completely boarded up and in a quite dilapidated state. Apparently there are plans to renovate, so we might well return one day in the future to see it then.
After two sad events, we were hoping for a bit of heart warming nostalgia and so set off to search search for the church we had got married in 37 years before. It's amazing how time dulls your memory. In my mind the church was just to the north of Sodyba and so that was our focus, using Google maps, of course, to help.
We had a couple of failures before we decided to have a pub lunch at a nice pub, proudly flying the Ukrainian flag, called the Holly Bush, before Leb had the brains to widen the search.
The pub sold some lovely cakes made by a Ukrainian pastry chef. I must say it was extremely heartwarming seeing how much support for Ukraine there was driving around England in 2024.
Слава Україні. Героям Слава!
Thanks to Leb, we broadened our search and found that the church was to the south east, not the north, of Sodyba, in a village called Grayshot. Oh yeah! And we quickly found it and confirmed this was where we got married back in February 1987.
Visiting the church brought back great memories, of course. Most notably was the conducting of actual marriage vows themselves by Father Matulis, our Lithuanian Catholic priest who had come down all the way from Nottingham. I think I actually married him to Lesley!
To be fair, marriages were not a very common occurance in the Lithuanian community. Funerals, yes. Marriages, no. So it is likely that Matulis hadn't done one of these for decades - maybe ever. Understandably, I suppose, he struggled to read out a few of tha passages he was supposed to and I tried to help him.
You know what's coming...
I actually read the bit "Do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife".
And he replied "I do!"
Time was ticking and this was Cup Final day so we set off to see our friends who had lived in Perth for years before resettling back in England. I'd arranged to pop in to see Rob, Elly and their lovely lad and, whilst there, we might watch the FA Cup final. That was all very lovely despite a few scares on arrival and departure from their massive dogs.
I never thought I'd want Manchester United to win anything but... against the United Arab Emirates gazillionaires... I was happy to see the "poor underdogs" win.
After that we drove around the M25 to Beaconsfield where we stayed one night in the Motel by the M40 had a nice walk into town over the M40 footbridge past a monument to some poor Liverpool fan who had apparently died recently. Then we stopped for fish & chips and a pint in a good old pub with quite a few drunken Mancunians on their way back from Wembley. On the way back, past Beaconsfield United's ground, I could resist taking a sneak peak.
Back in Beaconsfield and High Wycombe. (Sunday, 26th May)
Day 79 ~ This was a Football and nostalgia day for me. Leb went off to spend some time with her dear friend Anne Moore in Beaconsfield whilst I set off in the car to tick off a box I had been dying to cross off my list of things to do for years - ever since I learned that York Road, home of Maidenhead United, was probably the oldest continuously used senior football ground in the world. Bizarrely, I'd lived in High Wycombe, just up the road for eight years and actually worked in Maidenhead for a couple of those and never knew this fact. So I was long overdue a visit.
Afterwards, there was further nostalgia seeking out our three first homes in High Wycombe, in chronological order.
First, London Road, our first house where we settled in with baby Kes and where Laima was born...
Then, it was on to Lime Avenue, where we lived when Žemyna was born.
We explored old haunts, including some lovely nearby woods we used to walk in followed by the Rye.
Next stop: Hazlemere Road, our third house in High Wycombe, where our fourth child, Rozalija was born with the aid of a birthing pool - an even that would induce me to take an interest in the so-called "aquatic ape hypothesis." Something that would quickly escalate into an obsession and ultimately give us the excuse we were looking for to emigrate to Australia.
Typically, it started chucking it down just as we started getting close.
I watched Southampton beat Leeds 1-0 to clinch their place in the Premier League next season and was joined by Leb for the second half.
Finally, we drove to the lovely Hambleton Valley where a very kind couple of Americans gave us half of their lunch as the kitchen had just closed and we were starving.
Meeting Simon Bearder in the Turf Tavern, Oxford. (Monday, 27th May)
Day 80 ~ After checking out from Beaconsfield we drove to Caversham to catch up with Leb's brother Bill and his wife, Katy.
We then drove to Oxford's Park and Ride stop and caught the bus into the city. It was a close call. We actually got on the wrong bus - one bound for London and the grumpy driver was not hapy about pulling over by the side of the A40 to let us off again. Anyway, with a bit of gentle persuasion, she did and we walked back to the bus station and caught the right one.
I'd booked a relatively cheap place to stay right in the center and after dumping our bags we set off for a lovely walk around the fantastic old city. First stop was the old indoor market. Then we visited The Bear, one of the oldest pubs in Oxford.
Next, we visited the Head of The River where we had a nice pub lunch (I had delicious shepherd's pie) and then we walked by the river to the good old Turf tavern for a lovely evening with primatologist Simon Bearder.
Bye Bye Leb. Pub Crawl in Oxford. (Tuesday, 28th May)
Day 81 ~ This was the second time in our adventure around the world that Leb and me would go our seperate ways. My next destination was Nottingham to spend some time with my old mates from Kirkby-in-Ashfield, whilst Leb had three or four friends to catch up in London and the South of England. Click here to follow her. We'd meet up again in about five days in Leb's home town of Stroud.
So, early in the morning, Leb got up and left me to catch the bus back to the park and ride to pick up the car to drive to London. Suddenly, I was all alone again and missing my darling straight away. I needed to find solace somehow. I know! A pub crawl. But first, time for a rare Wendy Burger and a visit to Blackwell's.
After visiting Blackwell's, my favourite bookshop in the world, I paid a visit to a rather disappointing History of Science Museum.
After assuaging my guilt, I legged it back to the flat (via, I am ashamed to admit, Wendy's again!) to dump my bag and then set off, under an increasingly gloomy sky for my regular Oxford pub crawl.
It was beer o'clock and time to go to pub #1 - the King's Arms, where Leb and I waited whilst Laima had open heart surgery back in 2001.
Past the ubiquitous pro-Palestinian demonstration, I had a quick one at the White Hart next to Blackwells, before moving on to the Randolph Hotel made famous by Morse, as the rain started to pour.
The Eagle and Child was closed as was The Duke, so I legged it past the world famous Oxford University Press building to a pub I'd never been to before - The Jericho.
Things started to get a bit blurry at this point. The Old Tom and St Aldates Tavern were certainly on the list. I might have called it a night at that point as it was still raining.
Financial Summary
This was quite an expensive part of the holiday as we incurred the cost of the car hire ($3,105) for seven weeks and we had to pay the balance of our holiday home booked on the South Wales border in a few weeks time. Apart from that... !
Mood Summary
This was another very happy time for me. Endless good mood triggers almost no bad mood ones. A quick review of those feels trivial from where I sit now. Leb got upset with me deciding the whole itinerary after she'd just flown over from her sister in France to meet me. I didn't see that coming. In Brighton, I was annoyed by the very long walk back to Hove late at night. In Bournemouth, Leb put her foot down and vetoed me going in an old pub. The drive to Lyme Regis illiced a bad mood driving past Teignmouth and when we arrived I found out that Sykes Holidays had cancelled our booking of The Birches - something we resolved a few days later. On the way to Oxford we had a frustrating time and then on the last morning I was sad to see Leb go.
The positives outnumber the negatives by a factor of 25.6. The best days were the second one in Alfriston: A wonderful countryside walk, being taxied to the coast by Vernon Reynolds, a few pints and then a lovely dinner with them packed out that day. The drive to Looe to see Uncle Barry and Val was so special as was the lovely walk around Plymouth. It was great to see Judy and Paul and sad but sweet seeking wedding nostalgia. The days in Beaconsfield and Oxford were especially lovely too.
Booze Summary
Looking back, I'm pleasantly surprised that this was not the booziest destination so far. Portugal (with the discovery of Ninja!) and the Bordeaux vinyard experience pushed it into 3rd place. I expect the next few days in Nottingham will put that right though.
Four skinfulls out of twelve days could have been worse. The English vinery visit followed by plenty of grog back at Judy & Paul's was the #1 day followed by that very first day in Alfriston with its lovely pubs. Leb driving me around Hambledon valley (after watching Southampton v Leeds) was a good one. The Oxford pub crawl on my own, surprisingly perhaps, ended up fourth.
So, another section over and the South Coast of England is right up there with the best so far. As mentioned earlier, the expense was a little distorted as we had a couple of big outlays to pay up front. In terms of mood it was #3 only to Mexico, and the new favourite, London.
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