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.

Before setting off we called in at mum’s to collect our anniversary card. She had been hoping to post it to the hotel until she realised we were stopping in two hotels.

Our journey ran smoothly although there were a few slow areas due to heavy traffic. We had lunch at the Granary Cafe at Watlington which was recommended in my recently purchased ‘Extra Mile’ book. Which lists delicious eateries as alternatives to stopping at motorway service stations. We had to wait a while for the food to arrive (crustless quiche for me) but when it did it was worth the wait. After lunch we enjoyed a quick stroll through the town to see the interesting architecture, including the Town Hall.

On arrival at Arundel, we found the tucked away hotel carpark and checked in to The Norfolk Arms. It was a lovely sunny day so we dropped our bags in our room then enjoyed a glass of wine (beer for Mr C) in the hotel garden area.

Later, our bags unpacked, we enjoyed dinner in the hotel restaurant. I chose guinea fowl with croquettes flavoured with truffle oil; it was delicious. We shared a desert; apricot and almond fool with amaretti cream. Yum!

We crossed the road to the Red Lion where we found that an open mike evening was taking place. We were treated to some talented singing and good old classic music before it was time to retire for the evening.