The breakfast room was a lot busier than it had been on previous days which led to the service being a little slower than usual. We were seated in a quieter area of the room, away from the hustle and bustle of the buffet area.
Mr C had decided that we were going to head out of Brighton for the Day. We chose one of the driving routes from the Rough Guide to Brighton, Sussex and the West Downs. We didn’t intend to stop at all the points of interest just a few that took our fancy.
Before setting off, we drove to Hove so that we could visit a cook book shop that was mentioned in another new book I have; The Extra Mile. I was slightly overwhelmed by the number of books in the shop and the genre I particularly wanted to browse was a little cramped with someone else also in the space so I left empty handed.
We set off on our driving tour stopping at Lewes to visit the castle and museum. I would have liked to linger a little longer in Lewes but unfortunately, we had a timed carpark ticket. We purchased a made-to-order sandwich in a local bakery shop which we ate in the carpark at Middleham Priory. We had intended to stop on our way there but hadn’t spotted any suitable places to pull over.
The priory is in an idyllic setting and we were able to get in free with our Historic Houses membership. The priory was really interesting with lots of historical interest. The room guides were a little over enthusiastic at times, not leaving us space to explore for ourselves. We were however shown how the Jacobean mechanical spit roast worked which was very interesting. The gardens surrounding the priory were also a delight.
By the time we had finished at the priory it was getting a bit late to continue on the driving route so we decided to take the quick route back to Brighton but not without a slight detour to see the nearby Wilmington Man etched into the hillside.
Back at the hotel we chilled out in the room before dining in Caslingo Italian restaurant. Mr C had particularly wanted to include an Italian restaurant as one of our meal out choices. All the waiters were great and especially attentive after Mr C chose a Gavi as the wine of choice. We found out that one of the waiters was from Sicily and his family owned a restaurant there and their house overlooked the sea. It brought back memories of our Sicilian adventure in Taormina which was our last holiday abroad before travel restrictions. The meal was finished off with a tot of refreshing Limoncello.
We returned to the hotel where we got chatting to a couple of ladies, one of whom was a night club owner whose business had been affected by lockdown. This led to a political discussion about lockdown, climate change and electric cars, etc. It was an interesting conversation but I think I preferred the more uplifting memories of Sicily.
When we arrived back in our room Mr C realised that he had lost his glasses again…
He he… this Wilmington Man is milder than the Cerne Abbas Giant.
And also more mysterious. It is not known what he represents or how and why he arrived there.