We eventually got to Hurst Castle at about lunch time.
The castle is on a spit of land in the Solent channel. This basically means that there is a sort of island shaped bit of land connected to the mainland by a line of shingle, sand and stone. The Spit creates a sheltered bay from the onslaught of the sea in the English Channel and ultimately the Atlantic.
The weather, being a rather typically British coastal type of weather, was gray and windy – but, it actually wasn’t really that cold and to our great relief it wasn’t raining.
We had picked up a sandwich on route and when we parked the car in one of those car parks that you get in coastal towns and we sat facing the sea, watching the waves and gray clouds and ate our what my mum would call a picnic (although it bore very little resemblance to anything I would call a picnic). We both agreed that we felt about 80 years old sitting there. It was the type of thing you always see the “older generation” do. Sitting in the car, watching the greyness and drinking dish water coloured tea from a Thurmos flask in a tartan pattern which you could only buy in the late 70’s – as if having, and indeed using, something that old is a way of trying to stubbornly defy the advancing years.
Looking around….. we had one of those sort of, Victor Meldrew moments “I don’t beeeelieve it!” there it was, a Crawley Luxury coach – ohhh GOD, is there no escape from home!? Wondering who, or what, we would bump into we left the relative comfort and safety of the car for our 1.5 mile walk along the shingle/stones to Hurst Castle.
The wind felt as though it was going at about 1 million miles an hour, but of course it wasn’t. Having said that, both of us was almost deaf by the time reached even the 1/3 point because of the wind. 1.5 miles really isn’t that far, until you’ve walked it on soft shingle/stones. Bearing in mind that we had pretty much walked a minimum of 3 miles almost every day on holiday, this should have been a walk in the park – I have NEVER been so grateful to see a castle drawbridge in all my life! I imagine that on a nice day it was probably quite nice, however on our gray and miserable day it was just damn hard work. But, lets try and be positive, it wasn’t raining!?
Wohhha! the castle was much bigger than I had thought. It was first built and used by Henry VIII as one of his many South Coast defences, and then it was used, pretty much throughout time and extended for WW1 and then again for WWII.
Getting there was basically a bit of a relief. Right, first things first, where’s the café? We neeeeed a hot coffee! Paying our entrance (even though we are members of English Herritage, I forgot the passes – another bone of contention), we made our way to the Naffi (or Café). Understandably it wasn’t exactly packed with people, until that is, a group of Private School teenage girls arrived with their posh accents and permanent giggles – we tried to make a hasty exit before the entire place was stampeded.
The castle was great. We chose to look around the WWI and WWII parts first, and saw cannons that were tested in Malta for their power before moving them to Hurst and “active” service. There was lots to see and a lot of the rooms were open to explore. Going into one room, and looking around we found ourselves joined by a couple of the “lar de dar” bunch. Both giggling, one of the girls said to Rob “you should look up into that hole there….. its sooooo dark….”Rob of course did what she said, and then told her what it would have been used for – “its for moving ammunition from a safe room to where it can be used – it’s a lift shaft”. She actually looked quite surprised (huh, can’t have that good schooling then!?). They giggled and left the room. We also left, walking around to the next room.
Rob, walked to the corner – low and behold, there was an identical looking hole here too! (you can see where this is going can’t you?). Hearing more giggling, but this time emanating from the hole in the wall, the mischievous came out in the both of us…… Rob signalled to me to be quiet, and both of us looked to the floor. As if something had read our minds, there it was a small, but perfectly formed stone….. Rob picked it up and threw it down the shaft in the wall….. Ha ha! Have that – hope you don’t watch Most Haunted!? There was a scream and a “ohhh my God, what was that!?”, and then more giggling and a lot of hasty footsteps. Rob and I walked away, as if from a scene of a crime, trying to look innocent and trying to hide the smug satisfaction we both had.
Honestly, we are over the age of 10! Although, maybe there is a good reason for being asked for ID when buying Neuophen……
Monday 2 July 2007
Thursday - PT1
Rob wanted to show me where he had been on his cycle ride the night before so we went out for a bit of a ride in the car before setting off for Hurst Castle.
The road that Rob used, was actually closed for maintenance that day so it meant that we had to go a different route through the village and in turn that meant that we couldn’t quite follow the route Rob had taken. After a few wrong turns we actually ended up in somewhere called ………… It was a really pretty little town, with lots of “chocolate box” looking houses, with thatched roofs and black beams, and although were effectively terraced style houses, were all slightly different heights.
We decided to stop and pick up a couple of things from their local small, but adequately stocked, supermarket to save us going out when we returned home from Hurst. Rob waited in the car outside and I ran in to grab the things we needed, I actually only picked up a packet of Neorphen and some water in the end.
Checking the size of the queue when I entered the shop as I was aware of Rob waiting outside, I grabbed the most important things (nerophen and water) and joined the queue – it might be baring in mind that there was only 2 people waiting when I walked in, and when I joined the queue there was then only one. I waited, and the two people serving, chatted to their customers quite happily. Then one of the customers asked if the assistant could check the price of something before making the long, drawn out, and painful decision of whether to buy it or not, then one of them walked off and came back again….. by this time the lady in front of me was beginning to fidget and I was beginning to randomly look around at things thinking “what the hell was the delay, could they not see that there were people waiting?”. Eventually after about 20 minutes, and you have to remember that the lady in front of me was there when I walked in (so how long she had actually been waiting is beyond me), she actually got served (and lets have a round of applause!). By this time of course, the poor woman in front of me had almost gone gray we had been waiting so long, and I had begun to take root.
Finally I got my turn at the till – ohh the relief! - and then, as if the wait hadn’t been bad enough (will this torture never end, I only want to buy two items), the lady serving me looked at the other till operator and said “what is the age limit to buy pain relief like nerophen?”. I could hardly believe what I was hearing, I looked back at her in almost disbelief as she repeated the question to her colleague. My patience level dropped to an all time low and I snapped back “I’m thirty-bloody-three!” she looked at me as if I had just said the worst possible thing in the whole world and said “well you can’t be too sure these days” and then sought confirmation from the other lady…… my response “seriously, you are joking?” and then came the sarcasm, “you’re implying I look about 15 – errr, I don’t think so!” - I almost wish I had added the “bovvvvvvered?” to the end of that of the, I don’t think so - thankfully, however, I didn’t. She sort of stared me, and rung through the water and the neurophen tablets and then said “you should take it as a compliment really”. That just about did it for me, I almost threw a five pound note at her, picked up the items and stompped out of the shop shaking my head.
Thinking back….. perhaps that’s exactly what a 15 year old would have done LOL
Of course, because I had been so flipping long in the shop, when we finally left the town to go to Hurst Castle we both needed the loo, so we ended up going back to the apartment!
The road that Rob used, was actually closed for maintenance that day so it meant that we had to go a different route through the village and in turn that meant that we couldn’t quite follow the route Rob had taken. After a few wrong turns we actually ended up in somewhere called ………… It was a really pretty little town, with lots of “chocolate box” looking houses, with thatched roofs and black beams, and although were effectively terraced style houses, were all slightly different heights.
We decided to stop and pick up a couple of things from their local small, but adequately stocked, supermarket to save us going out when we returned home from Hurst. Rob waited in the car outside and I ran in to grab the things we needed, I actually only picked up a packet of Neorphen and some water in the end.
Checking the size of the queue when I entered the shop as I was aware of Rob waiting outside, I grabbed the most important things (nerophen and water) and joined the queue – it might be baring in mind that there was only 2 people waiting when I walked in, and when I joined the queue there was then only one. I waited, and the two people serving, chatted to their customers quite happily. Then one of the customers asked if the assistant could check the price of something before making the long, drawn out, and painful decision of whether to buy it or not, then one of them walked off and came back again….. by this time the lady in front of me was beginning to fidget and I was beginning to randomly look around at things thinking “what the hell was the delay, could they not see that there were people waiting?”. Eventually after about 20 minutes, and you have to remember that the lady in front of me was there when I walked in (so how long she had actually been waiting is beyond me), she actually got served (and lets have a round of applause!). By this time of course, the poor woman in front of me had almost gone gray we had been waiting so long, and I had begun to take root.
Finally I got my turn at the till – ohh the relief! - and then, as if the wait hadn’t been bad enough (will this torture never end, I only want to buy two items), the lady serving me looked at the other till operator and said “what is the age limit to buy pain relief like nerophen?”. I could hardly believe what I was hearing, I looked back at her in almost disbelief as she repeated the question to her colleague. My patience level dropped to an all time low and I snapped back “I’m thirty-bloody-three!” she looked at me as if I had just said the worst possible thing in the whole world and said “well you can’t be too sure these days” and then sought confirmation from the other lady…… my response “seriously, you are joking?” and then came the sarcasm, “you’re implying I look about 15 – errr, I don’t think so!” - I almost wish I had added the “bovvvvvvered?” to the end of that of the, I don’t think so - thankfully, however, I didn’t. She sort of stared me, and rung through the water and the neurophen tablets and then said “you should take it as a compliment really”. That just about did it for me, I almost threw a five pound note at her, picked up the items and stompped out of the shop shaking my head.
Thinking back….. perhaps that’s exactly what a 15 year old would have done LOL
Of course, because I had been so flipping long in the shop, when we finally left the town to go to Hurst Castle we both needed the loo, so we ended up going back to the apartment!
Holiday Memories
Since these are memories, these might not necessarily be written in the right order, so apologies if the days jump a little.
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