Honeymoon part one, Treehouses and barns.
Following on from the wedding entry, we stayed our first night in Coombe Abbey. We had spent a little time wondering about what we were going to do for our wedding night, but as we were looking at the Coombe Abbey website we had noticed that they had a room with a hidden doorway. Suddenly our choice was easy! The room was at the opposite end of the hotel from the reception, so we had lots of windy corridors and strange small staircases to go over before we got to the room.
When we got to the room, it was really warm in there, so we opened up a few windows to let it cool, and then explored.There was a fake bookcase which had a door in it. This made me disproportionately pleased :) The room itself was rather fancy, with heavy draped curtains, big armchairs and a very comfy four poster bed. We were very amused to find a little notice that encouraged the guests to "Dress the part" and not wander around the hotel looking very scruffy.We had not managed to pack for scruff, so we didn't have any choice in the matter.
The next morning we took ourselves rather lazily down to breakfast (After having dressed the part obviously) which was rather lavish. There was a lot of giggling as we called each-other "wife" and "husband." It would turn out that this would keep us entertained for at least the first month of marriage. Never let it be said that we are difficult to amuse! Whilst we got a few funny looks from a waiter, he did come up later on, apologised, and asked if I had ever been on Mastermind... Apparently I looked like one of the winners. (Top marks for finding an inventive way out of a faux-pas though, if that was what it was.) It turned out that we were both rather hungry, as the previous day had been rather exciting, and by the time it came to the evening we had completely forgotten that we needed to eat anything, and so both of us had mostly missed dinner (Though not the cake!)
Before we checked out we did spend a bit of time going in and out of the hidden doorway :) On the way back to the house we popped in to see
blooddoll3 and colfish and picked up the stuff they had rescued from the reception venue. They had a surprise waiting for us as we had some cookies to take off to the treehouse with us :) It was early afternoon before we managed to make it home, emptied the car, and then off again for Sussex.
We had the very exciting tree-house (http://www.castlecottage.info/thetreehouse.html) we were going to for the honeymoon :) :) It was well away from... well, most things really. Once we left the main roads it took a little while to find it, but eventually we turned up the little track to it, and as we parked up thought "That is our tree-house tonight :)
We didn't do too much that evening. The owner came out and settled us in, and we asked him about nearby places to eat. None of them sounded particularly nearby, and we realised that we had a small packed lunch with us, as well as a lot of cookies :)
That would make a much better dinner, so we went for a walk, and then had a picnic in the treehouse veranda. We only actually had it for the one evening (Booked up a very long time in advance) and so we would rather be there instead of going off for food.
Some of you might be thinking that being in the middle of nowhere would mean that it was very quiet. Not so, it was just differently noisy. Through the night we had a lot of owls singing, occasional outbreaks of excitable pigs and the scampering of squirrels over the roof of the treehouse. Not that we cared, we were married and in a treehouse :)
The next morning we went down for breakfast, which was in a rather lovely old conservatory. A breakfast spread worthy of a Famous Five novel was laid on, and we ate it watching the squirrels scampering over the top of the glass roof, and then down to where they were having their morning meal as well. The owner had found that the squirrels kept eating bits of the tree-house, and making a bit of a mess of the roof. A civilised agreement was reached where he fed them and they left his tree-house alone. We spent a long time eating, and chatted about what we were going to do that day. We had a few palces recommended to us, and we made a mental note of which ones we would go to.
The treehouse is unfortunately booked ages in advance, and we had only managed to get it for the one night. Before going out for the day we quickly packed out things and moved them over to the barn (http://www.castlecottage.info/thebarn.html), which we had for the next two nights.
As we headed out in the car, we realised that we had remembered lots of place names from the advice about the best places to go. Unfortunately we couldn't quite remember which had fallen into the bad camp, and which into the good camp. Worthing was fairly easy to get to and also on the coast so that was where we went. We had a walk along the beach, but as it was a pebble beach ew didn't go quite a far as we might otherwise have gone. The pier had the usual amusements in there, and we played in there until we had our fill. Okay, so this might have only taken about 5 minutes, but it was still a vital part of going to the seaside :) Worthing is also very well stocked with bookshops, so there was a lot of shopping done, and a rest taken in a milkshake shop.Milk shakes! Yay!
We still plenty of the day left after we had finished exploring Worthing, so decided to go via Arundel. Crucially, the castle was closed on Mondays, so when we got there we couldn't get in. There was some discussion about the chances of storming the castle, but that didn't seem like it would have worked that well, so we had a little wander around the villageinstead.
Getting food on the way back to the Barn turned out to be rather trickier than we had imagined. Lots of pubs were closed, and those that weren't didn't serve food on Mondays. We ahd been hoping that we would be able to get something at some pub in the countryside, but in the end had to go into a town to find somewhere that was actually open and serving food. Much more complicated than expected!
Inside the barn was quite a lot bigger than your typical B&B room, so we had lots of room to lounge around in in the evening. That evening we curled up on the sofa and opened all the cards from the wedding. It was brilliant to read what everyone had written about us :)
We put all the cards up, and they did a good job of covering pretty much all of the bookshelf we had in the room :)
The next morning we were very much looking forward to the rather excellent breakfast again, and it was rather great, and again we had lots of squirrels to look at as we ate. There was also another couple staying (The ones that had booked the treehouse.) We were very enthusiastic about the place to one another. Chatting to the owner, we found out that Worthing wasn't one of the better places,according to him, that we could have gone to so that day we set out to Itchenor. If you like really quiet seaside towns this is your place. If you like looking at boats, this is your place. We had a long walk along the shore, but there wasn't that much else to do there, so we moved on to Chichester. This had lots more second hand book stores, which can keep Dave and Dott quite happy :) It was very much a pootling day. That evening we had learnt our lesson about finding somewhere to eat, and we went down to the pub in a nearby village after checking that they were actually going to be serving that evening.
It was quite a short few days away, but fantastically nice and really relaxing. Part two of the honeymoon would be going up to Whitby.
When we got to the room, it was really warm in there, so we opened up a few windows to let it cool, and then explored.There was a fake bookcase which had a door in it. This made me disproportionately pleased :) The room itself was rather fancy, with heavy draped curtains, big armchairs and a very comfy four poster bed. We were very amused to find a little notice that encouraged the guests to "Dress the part" and not wander around the hotel looking very scruffy.We had not managed to pack for scruff, so we didn't have any choice in the matter.
The next morning we took ourselves rather lazily down to breakfast (After having dressed the part obviously) which was rather lavish. There was a lot of giggling as we called each-other "wife" and "husband." It would turn out that this would keep us entertained for at least the first month of marriage. Never let it be said that we are difficult to amuse! Whilst we got a few funny looks from a waiter, he did come up later on, apologised, and asked if I had ever been on Mastermind... Apparently I looked like one of the winners. (Top marks for finding an inventive way out of a faux-pas though, if that was what it was.) It turned out that we were both rather hungry, as the previous day had been rather exciting, and by the time it came to the evening we had completely forgotten that we needed to eat anything, and so both of us had mostly missed dinner (Though not the cake!)
Before we checked out we did spend a bit of time going in and out of the hidden doorway :) On the way back to the house we popped in to see
blooddoll3 and colfish and picked up the stuff they had rescued from the reception venue. They had a surprise waiting for us as we had some cookies to take off to the treehouse with us :) It was early afternoon before we managed to make it home, emptied the car, and then off again for Sussex.We had the very exciting tree-house (http://www.castlecottage.info/thetreehouse.html) we were going to for the honeymoon :) :) It was well away from... well, most things really. Once we left the main roads it took a little while to find it, but eventually we turned up the little track to it, and as we parked up thought "That is our tree-house tonight :)
We didn't do too much that evening. The owner came out and settled us in, and we asked him about nearby places to eat. None of them sounded particularly nearby, and we realised that we had a small packed lunch with us, as well as a lot of cookies :)
That would make a much better dinner, so we went for a walk, and then had a picnic in the treehouse veranda. We only actually had it for the one evening (Booked up a very long time in advance) and so we would rather be there instead of going off for food.
Some of you might be thinking that being in the middle of nowhere would mean that it was very quiet. Not so, it was just differently noisy. Through the night we had a lot of owls singing, occasional outbreaks of excitable pigs and the scampering of squirrels over the roof of the treehouse. Not that we cared, we were married and in a treehouse :)
The next morning we went down for breakfast, which was in a rather lovely old conservatory. A breakfast spread worthy of a Famous Five novel was laid on, and we ate it watching the squirrels scampering over the top of the glass roof, and then down to where they were having their morning meal as well. The owner had found that the squirrels kept eating bits of the tree-house, and making a bit of a mess of the roof. A civilised agreement was reached where he fed them and they left his tree-house alone. We spent a long time eating, and chatted about what we were going to do that day. We had a few palces recommended to us, and we made a mental note of which ones we would go to.
The treehouse is unfortunately booked ages in advance, and we had only managed to get it for the one night. Before going out for the day we quickly packed out things and moved them over to the barn (http://www.castlecottage.info/thebarn.html), which we had for the next two nights.
As we headed out in the car, we realised that we had remembered lots of place names from the advice about the best places to go. Unfortunately we couldn't quite remember which had fallen into the bad camp, and which into the good camp. Worthing was fairly easy to get to and also on the coast so that was where we went. We had a walk along the beach, but as it was a pebble beach ew didn't go quite a far as we might otherwise have gone. The pier had the usual amusements in there, and we played in there until we had our fill. Okay, so this might have only taken about 5 minutes, but it was still a vital part of going to the seaside :) Worthing is also very well stocked with bookshops, so there was a lot of shopping done, and a rest taken in a milkshake shop.Milk shakes! Yay!
We still plenty of the day left after we had finished exploring Worthing, so decided to go via Arundel. Crucially, the castle was closed on Mondays, so when we got there we couldn't get in. There was some discussion about the chances of storming the castle, but that didn't seem like it would have worked that well, so we had a little wander around the villageinstead.
Getting food on the way back to the Barn turned out to be rather trickier than we had imagined. Lots of pubs were closed, and those that weren't didn't serve food on Mondays. We ahd been hoping that we would be able to get something at some pub in the countryside, but in the end had to go into a town to find somewhere that was actually open and serving food. Much more complicated than expected!
Inside the barn was quite a lot bigger than your typical B&B room, so we had lots of room to lounge around in in the evening. That evening we curled up on the sofa and opened all the cards from the wedding. It was brilliant to read what everyone had written about us :)
We put all the cards up, and they did a good job of covering pretty much all of the bookshelf we had in the room :)
The next morning we were very much looking forward to the rather excellent breakfast again, and it was rather great, and again we had lots of squirrels to look at as we ate. There was also another couple staying (The ones that had booked the treehouse.) We were very enthusiastic about the place to one another. Chatting to the owner, we found out that Worthing wasn't one of the better places,according to him, that we could have gone to so that day we set out to Itchenor. If you like really quiet seaside towns this is your place. If you like looking at boats, this is your place. We had a long walk along the shore, but there wasn't that much else to do there, so we moved on to Chichester. This had lots more second hand book stores, which can keep Dave and Dott quite happy :) It was very much a pootling day. That evening we had learnt our lesson about finding somewhere to eat, and we went down to the pub in a nearby village after checking that they were actually going to be serving that evening.
It was quite a short few days away, but fantastically nice and really relaxing. Part two of the honeymoon would be going up to Whitby.