We enjoyed one last breakfast before checking out of the Norfolk Arms ready to travel to our next destination; Brighton.
I succumbed to the temptation and called in at the Wildlife and Wetlands Centre to purchase a pair of binoculars. I tested them out again eventually settling on a pair that I thought would be best for my needs. I had to wait a short while to purchase them due to a long queue of visitors booking in for a day in the wetlands.
Next, we visited the nearby Bignor Roman Villa; a large Roman courtyard villa discovered by George Tupper when he struck a large stone whilst ploughing his farm in 1811. The villa has some interesting and unique finds.
By now it was time for elevenses so we set off for a nearby village. We never arrived in the village due to being repeatedly drawn back into, what we started to call, the Bury triangle. Instead, we ended up at Petworth just in time for lunch. The eagle eyed will realise that Petworth is in completely the opposite direction to Brighton. The National Trust carpark for Petworth House was full so we left and parked next to the deer park hoping that there would be a lunch opportunity there.
We weren’t disappointed, we found the delightfully named ‘Toast Me Up’ tucked away in one corner of the car park. It was perfect and my toasted sandwich was delicious.
After lunch Mr C headed off towards the coast thinking of a coastal drive towards Brighton. Mr C chose to include Bognor Regis in his itinerary. When we arrived, it was every bit as bad as I thought it would be. Next town along the coast Littlehampton where once again we elected not to stop and continued inland straight to Brighton.
We drove straight to our hotel, the Grand, arriving at the drop off point in front of the hotel. We were greeted by 3 suited and bowler-hatted concierges. Mr C was directed to park his car and, before I could get out of the car, the boot was unpacked and they had whisked Mr C away along with our luggage. When he returned to the car, one of the concierges explained how to get to the car park and back to the hotel.
When I eventually got to the room it was WOW! All that I hoped it would be. We left the bags in the walk-in luggage area and went for a stroll around Brighton before returning to freshen up before dining in the French-styled Bistro du Vin. We had intended to dine in the Cyan restaurant at the Grand but we found that it closes early on a Sunday.
We had a brief visit to Weatherspoon’s before taking a leisurely stroll along the seafront back to the hotel for a nightcap in the bar.
WOW, that view is amazing! Aw, I’m so glad you had such a romantic seaside room for your anniversary
But … what? Someone was plowing on their farm and found a 2nd century Roman villa? THAT IS SO COOL! And I watched a movie not long ago about an ancient Anglo-Saxon found similarly (originally thought to be Viking) called “The Dig.”
Dang, we definitely don’t find stuff like that here. We get excited about an arrowhead or two, which is cool, but nothing like that!
Okay, me and the rest of “The Knights Who Say Ni” are coming over there to dig around a bit for the Holy Grail, do you think they’ll mind ?
And I know this has little to do with the location, but I’m digging that 50s-ish camper-like food truck. Food trucks have surprisingly good food nowadays.
We chose a sea view room
The land where the villa and buildings were found is still owned by the same family after all this time.
The food from the camper van was excellent.
Sounds like à fun trip
It was a fund trip