Day Out East Sussex

After our Dover Castle expedition, we winded our way through the countryside to see the Seven Sisters - an area I'd heard was prettier and easier to access than the cliffs of Dover. At an intersection I saw a sign and shouted for Mike to pull over immediately. Three miles off our path was Bodiam Castle, which I'd read was a film location for Monty Python and the Holy Grail (the "Swamp Castle", or the scene with the line, "Let's not bicker about who killed who..."). Did he want to pull off and see it? A definite yes!

 It was a very quick detour, because I didn't want to run out of light for exploring the Seven Sisters, but very worth the time. Such a castley castle. Turrets? Check. Moat? Check. There's beautiful grounds for picnicing, and a pretty path around the whole castle that doesn't take much time. I've heard the views from the top of the castle are very pretty too, but we had places to be.

 We accessed the Seven Sisters area via Birling Gap, which I highly recommend. Wow was this area beautiful. I could spend a week there, just soaking in the scenery and walking around.

 Besides the beautiful white cliffs, the area is full of rolling hills, picturesque farms and little villages.

Here's from the beach. Our pictures don't quite capture the beauty and grandness of being there. Unfortunately, as this trip was planned for a Saturday in July at the last minute, we weren't able to find a place to spend the night in the immediate area. We headed up to East Grinstead, where we were well-situated for our adventures for the next day.

This next part of our weekend was all about me. We were near Hartfield and the Ashdown Forrest, AKA, A. A. Milne and Winnie the Pooh country. One of my disappointments of parenthood has been that I was unable to force my children to love those books as much as I did. But I did love them, we were nearby, so we were off to explore the "Hundred Acre Wood."

 First stop was the Pooh Corner shop to get a map. Old houses were not built for people Mike's size!

This picture isn't the best example, but I find the roads somewhat terrifying. Luckily, I was not driving. They are generally too narrow for two cars to pass each other, yet they'll be two-way streets. Bicyclists are everywhere, the roads are twisty, and there's absolutely no shoulder. Then the speed limit was 40 miles per hour. Trust me, with the narrowness, the twisty-ness, the bicyclists and the speed I felt like I was out driving with  Mr. Toad.

My kids indulged me by being good sports and finding sticks to play Pooh Sticks off Pooh Bridge. This was a little thrill for me.

"They walked on, thinking of This and That, and by-and-by they came to an enchanted place on the very top of the forest …..  Sitting there they could see the whole world spread out until it reached the sky, and whatever there was all the world over was with them."

The Enchanted Place is, once again, much more enchanting than it comes across in the pictures. I'm so happy my family indulged me in seeing these places. We had a marvelous weekend. I can highly recommend East Sussex and Dover Castle. I hope you all are spending time in your own enchanted places.