We arrived at the breakfast room a little later than usual to find that breakfast room had more people in it than on previous days. This meant that the self-service breakfast was warmer than the previous day.

We drove to Chichester to visit the Cathedral and get another stamp in my Cathedral passport. We enjoyed the Cathedral in a way that we didn’t when we stayed in Chichester many years ago. On our previous visit the space was full of artworks obscuring the architecture so we could not enjoy the Cathedral at its best.

We had lunch in the Cathedral Café, where after having had a cooked breakfast, I opted for an Apple Danish pastry (one of my five a day ????).

After lunch we walked around the nearby Bishop’s Palace gardens which looked delightful in the sunshine. As we walked through the town towards the car it was sad to see empty shops where businesses had closed in the main street. I was also saddened to see homeless people; I don’t remember seeing any on my previous visit.

We set the SatNav to avoid motorways and drove back to Winchester via a leisurely route through the countryside in glorious sunshine.

Later we dined in Brasserie Blanc where I chose vegetable risotto, which was delicious, and Mr C chose steak followed by a cheeseboard. After dining we called in at the nearby Royal Oak for a post dinner drink. The beer wasn’t to Mr C’s taste so we returned to the hotel for one last drink before retiring to our room for the evening.

We arrived at the hotel shortly after 10pm to be told that the bar had just closed! The girl behind the bar was on the phone to her boss at the time and explained that customers had just arrived and asked if they could be served. The answer was NO!

We walked off in disgust. We were not experiencing the advertised 5-star rating that the hotel advertises. So far, it was the worst ever hotel had I had ever experienced. We were both regretting booking the extra two nights on the spur of the moment, just because we could now that Mr C has retired.

It is the management of the various facilities which all seem to be subcontracted out that is the problem, the staff were mostly lovely. I suspect part of the problem is the hotel struggling to cover its costs. By now I was noticing that the quality of things such as serviettes and toilet paper had declined since we arrived.

Mr C and I were up bright and early and before almost everyone else. We sat reading in the room that has been named The Library until everyone else was up and about. After a late breakfast of scotch pancakes, bacon, sausage and maple syrup, we said our goodbyes and set off towards Chichester. Taking a leisurely drive,  we stopped off in Rye for a cup of tea.

It was quite a jaunt from the car park to the town and when we arrived Mr C walked past all the tea shops to see if he could find one overlooking the water. He failed in his search and so settled for one that I was uncertain about. I didn’t say anything because after the long walk I was ready for a refreshing cold drink. We sat and waited for someone to come and take our order. We were still waiting 10 minutes later, as were several other people. Mr C asked if I thought we should leave to which I agreed.

I directed him to another tea shop which had caught my eye as we walked past. This was a far better choice and we were served immediately. The food looked delicious but we had only just had breakfast so we didn’t indulge.

Once back at the car we continued on our journey towards Chichester, detouring along the coast in order to find a suitable seafront place for lunch. We spotted a nice tea shop in Eastbourne and decided to stop there. However, we had a change of plan when Mr C suggested having fish for lunch. I looked at the menu and thought the idea was fun. Mr C chose battered fish whilst I elected to have fish bites with sea salt, herbs and tartar sauce. The man who served us said, semi jokingly, not to let the seagulls get it.

We made our way to the seafront and sat on a bench next to the gardens which were seagull free. I was just finishing my last piece of fish when I felt a tug on the piece of fish I was holding causing me to exclaim! I found myself eye to eye with a seagull that had swooped down silently with precision from behind me. As my hold on the tasty morsel was greater than his, he let go and sat a couple of feet away from me eyeing me up. I removed the end of the fish that he had grabbed and finished the rest as several of his mates lined up with him eying me up. Mr C threw the remaining morsel of fish in their direction causing the seagulls to dive for it.

Following this adventure we took a walk along the promenade where Mr C indulged in a Mr Whippy ice cream before we took a stroll along the pier. Whilst we were on the pier I noticed other seagulls trying to grab ice creams from unsuspecting people (unsuccessfully) by using the same silent dive-from-behind technique.

After returning to our car we continued along the coast road through Brighton, which was disappointing because a lot of the buildings were covered in scaffolding. The drive was taking a little longer than we liked so we headed inland to speed up the journey. Just as we were arriving near Chichester we received a call from the B&B wondering where we were as the paperwork they had been given advised that we would be arriving at 3pm when in fact we had notified that we would be arriving between 4-5pm.

The B&B is tucked away behind the Cathedral and it took a couple of circuits of Chichester to find it. On arrival we checked in and were shown to our room which was a delight with armchairs in the bay window overlooking the garden. Unfortunately the Cathedral was under wraps because of roof restorations. After we had unpacked and freshened up, we headed into town to find a suitable place to dine. It being Sunday many dining places weren’t open, limiting our options.

As we were considering a menu that was mostly burgers and steak, a man offered a couple of suggestions; Carluccios and Brasserie Blanc. He then gave us directions on how to get to them. We opted for Brasserie Blanc due to its varied menu options. After we had finished dining it was too soon to return to the B&B so we stopped off at a pub. At 10.30 the barman called last orders and promptly turned the lights on and the music off. It is a good job we hadn’t taken him up on his call for last orders, we wouldn’t have enjoyed it!! Instead of returning the glasses to the bar as we would normally do we left them on the table and decided not to return on another night.