Monday, 9 April 2007

We said fond farewells to Marjorie, her children and her dogs and took the scenic route from Petersfield through Harting to Chichester where we visited the cathedral and enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing lunch.

We agreed it had been a truly memorable honeymoon. Of course we might have spent three weeks on a beach in the Caribbean or the Seychelles, but where’s the fun in that? We had enjoyed a great visit to somewhere nearby that we can return to again and again.

And it still wasn’t over: later we stopped at Denmans Gardens to buy a Wisteria to plant outside our front door.

And then we stopped off at Arundel, a town dominated by its castle and its Catholic cathedral. The massive castle was sadly closing for the day.

The Catholic cathedral was designed in the French gothic style and stood over the town like a sinister UFO or perhaps a Harpie. The church was designed by Joseph Hansom (more famous for designing the Hansom Cab) but was interesting not so much for its architecture as for its sociology (being built in the immediate aftermath of the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act).

We also visited the older and more comely Anglican church of St Nicholas and saw traces of the medieval wall paintings that once adorned the pre-reformation church.

Our best find in Arundel was Sweet Memories - a traditional sweet shop where we treated ourselves to buttered brazil nuts, sweet peanuts, toasted tea cakes, pineapple chunks, and rhubarb and custard. Sweet memories indeed.

We arrived in Brighton and saw Bobby briefly before leaving returning to WGC with Bryan and leaving Bobby to sort out his broken window.