breakfast and beyond.......

Morning in Bognor; cloudy but dry. Our very nice hotel included a full breakfast which was just as well because it's the most expensive one we've stayed in, including all the one's we used in 2009 when we were here for 4 weeks. Now it hasn't been mentioned that this hotel caters strongly for  people who are blind. Guide dogs are welcome everywhere and bedding and food is supplied to the rooms. Awesome huh? The problem that seems to be associated with this; they burn the toast. I don't know if it's an old toaster and they don't want to replace it or if the cook was having a bad day or if, in their experience, people who are blind like their toast burnt because without the sense of sight they are not sure if it's in their mouth yet, but then I was under the impression (although I've never asked) that people without one sense develop stronger other senses, so I am amazed that toast wasn't flying left right and centre. Anyway, enough about the toast. We ate well enough and set off on our way to Old Sarum.

 Old Sarum has been a defensive site for over three thousand years and is impressive indeed. It is set on a hill, about 2 miles from Stonehenge and a lot of work has at different stages, gone into piling up more and more earth and carting a good deal of stones up said hill to be artfully placed together to form yet more massive walls.

It was  an  iron age fort so there would have been much discussion about arrow heads and axes. I don't know how they would have kept warm, I had to go into the toilet and add another layer plus a hat. It was used by the Romans, and the Saxons to keep out the vikings... not sure how they got the boats that far inland. But, it seems to be mainly renowned for the Norman invasion of William the Conquerer, who built his first motte and bailey castle here and then proceeded to build more all over the country to consolidate his successful invasion. He basically gathered all the incredibly wealthy landowners to this spot and said 'Guess what boys, it's all mine now.' Then he ordered the Domesday Book and recorded everything that was owned by everyone, after deciding who he wanted to have what, including even the smallest number of livestock. It's a fascinating book that the experts still heartily debate the purpose of today.

Anyway,good old Willy left it all to his youngest son Henry the 1st and so on and so forth until Henry the 8th was in charge and gave permission for all the stones to be sold off. So now it is but a ruin, albeit it a magnificent one. The wind was the iciest we have encountered and even I found myself needing to control my runny nose. Also not previously mentioned, Glenn seems to have some kind of nose dysfunction in England and requires great numbers of hankies and orders to stop sniffing. Thankfully, this condition does not result in snoring. I seem to have gotten a bit off track there but, all in all it was a fantastic weekend!

 The weekend finished with us grabbing a cuppa tea and lunch from the Marlborough Church.