April 11th
On wards to Arundel, a small town situated
in West Sussex which holds a cathedral as well as an ancient castle. Excitement
coursed through my veins as Hannah and I made our way to the entrance of the
castle. The Arundel Castle was my first ever experience of seeing an English
Castle. ‘No cameras allowed within the castle grounds’ a sign said as we passed
the front entry. As we made our way up to see the Keep, that rule was quickly
ignored (no worries I don’t use flash) as I would occasionally sneak a photo here
or there, usually of the views from the windows.
The day just was sweet, sunshine kissed our
faces as we enjoyed our lunch outside of the castle on a bench surrounded by
cherry blossoms. At lunch I had my first ever hot cross buns, which I guess is
an Easter treat, but I was excited to try it since I have always heard of hot
cross buns from the nursery rhymes. After lunch we went to see the castle
gardens since we were not allowed to go to the main castle rooms till past
noon, where I bought some organic kale from the Duke’s garden.
Hannah and I wandered through the immense
rooms in the castle, it is just so stunning to see architecture and decorating
of such a high standard and even more impressive that they were made at least
over a hundred years ago or more. A bit bizarre to think how much has changed
in the quality of items made a hundred years ago.
After our castle excursion aided with our
map we roamed the streets of Arundel searching for a tourist information
building. Once we managed to find it we entered the building as two German
tourists were walking out and the elderly gentleman behind the counter said, “I’ll
be with you in a minute” to us without looking up from his cataloguing. After
marking down that two people visited from Germany he said, “Good afternoon madams,
how may I help you?” Hannah asked him if there was a walking map of the routes
of Arundel; the man kind of half heard us gesturing to some town maps of
Arundel below the counter. Hannah attempted again as we already had a map of
Arundel and asked if he knew of any decent trails that we could take around
here, letting him know that we do have hiking boots and a car so distance isn’t
too much of an issue for us. The man just said somewhere along the river, and
told us to take a map of the city. To please him we did, though for trails all
he could tell us was to walk along the river on a trail that seemed like it
wasn’t very far. Before we left he asked us our nationalities. Hannah told him
she was from the UK and I told him I was from the U.S.; he made note of this in
his catalogue as we began to leave. Stepping into the street a woman passed us entering
the tourist information and we heard behind us, “Good afternoon madam”-Quite a
peculiar character.
Hannah and I had a lovely walk by the
river, managing to find an unpaved path that continued in the country fields.
Cows huddled laying down on the grass watching us as we went past. At one point
we came upon an old village church, the church of St. Leonard of South Stoke to
be exact (2.5 miles north east from Arundel). The church was recorded in the
Doomsday Book in 1086! 1086!!! That is practically a millennium ago! The
history of such a building just baffled me to think of all the villagers who
attended this modest church, were married, grieved, baptised. So many
generations must have walked on the same stone flooring as I have walked on
now. The parish currently has a population of 57 people.
Hannah and I sat on a bench outside amongst
the gravestones snacking on fruit as we saw a couple walk into the church. The
couple left and soon Hannah and I decided it was about time to head back before
the sun sets. Out of the churchyard gates we bumped into that same couple,
turns out that they live in the next village over but had never ventured over
to South Stoke before. They told us of a book about the town that includes
Arundel and the church of St. Leonard, called, The Foxes Oven. After a long and lovely chat we bid adieu and
continued on our journey back. I really enjoyed that couple; they were
definitely from the countryside Hannah told me, because in the countryside or
smaller villages it isn’t uncommon for folks to strike up a conversation or
just be really friendly.
Returning to the car we changed our shoes
and headed back to Southampton by sunset.
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