Weekend with JR - Nov 2025
| Weekend with JR - Nov 2025 | |
| How excited we were: JR was visiting from Canada, and we decided to meet up and do some sightseeing together. After some planning, we ended up with Seven Sisters on the south coast and Hampton Court Palace, and some other places in between. | |
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| While JR was staying downtown London, we were driving Percy and decided to stay near West Drayton with easy access to the Tube line. We rented a cabin at the Watersedge on the Grand Union Canal. It was beautiful in the daytime... | |
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| ....and beautiful at nighttime. We were happy to have free off-road parking. On top of that we got nice restaurant and nice view of the canal boats. | |
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| A comfortable walk on the dirt track along the canal brought us right into downtown West Drayton. | |
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| We saved having dinner at our Watersedge restaurant with JR and enjoyed a pizza at Fresh Bites Pizza & Grill. | |
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Next day we jumped in Percy and picked up JR at the Tube station.
We were off to the coast to see the white cliffs at Seven Sisters.
Luckily (nerdily?) we had looked up the tide times before departing the cabin,
and we realized that we could not view the cliffs from our "usual"
spot at Cuckmere River at high tide. Therefore we drove to Birling Gap where one can park
close to the cliff and climb down some stairs to the beach.
We would also like to point out that there is a decent sized car park at Birling Gap and the parking fee was not bad at all (£2 for 1 hour). Worth every penny. It is very disappointing to see quite how many people refused to pay the parking and in stead leave their cars along very narrow roads. All the cars parked along the narrow road also made it hazardous for those who had chosen to take the bus to East Dean and hike 1.3 miles to the cliffs. We paid for Percy's parking. It was a beautiful day for it, and the cliffs looked so impossibly white! |
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| Look at us! So happy to be together again albeit on a pebbly cold beach in the UK and not in our condo building in Ottawa. | |
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After a quick hike around the cliff tops at Birling Gap, we popped into the
cafe to pick up some sausage rolls and soft drinks for our planned picnic lunch.
We also availed ourselves of their facilities (i.e.: went for a wee).
We had scoped out a few places to have our picnic lunch. The choice fell on Newhaven along the road to Brighton. On Google Earth we had spotted a harbour area that looked promising. We arrived to find that there was plenty space to park Percy and enjoy our picnic. Rob fired up the stove, and we had a cup of tea - as usual. It was quite a windy day, so we tested using our Australian pop-up beach tent as a wind break. Worked quite well. Although all the fishermen around us must have wondered what was going on! |
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We weren't just going to jump in Percy and drive back home.
More sightseeing was to be done. More or less randomly, we picked Chichester.
A quick walk around town to see remnants of a roman wall, and of course
the Cathedral. They started building it in 1075 and it was completed in 1108.
The only surviving detached Bell Tower in the UK dates to around 1400.
The statue of Saint Richard stands outside the cathedral making the sign of a holy blessing.
We didn't take the time to go inside to explore. One day we will because
there is a lot to see including sculptures, windows, artwork and memorials.
Mental note: the most convenient place to park is in Avenue De Chartres car park. Then there is a small foot bridge to downtown. |
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| To celebrate our visit together, we went to the restaurant at our cabin, Watersedge. We had delicious food - Hild choosing the lamb of course. The inn is often used as a wedding venue, so the decor was very nice indeed. | |
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Sunday was dedicated to Hampton Court Palace. Originally it was built by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in the early 16th century.
Henry VIII liked it so much that he, over time, brought all his six wives. When William III and Mary II (1689-1702)
took the throne in 1689, they asked Sir Christopher Wren to build an elegant new baroque palace. After him several King Georges
moved in and put their mark on the palace. When the royals left in 1737, aristocrats moved in. Finally, Queen Victoria decided to
open the palace to the public in 1838. The pace is huge, so use the map to plan your outing and we recommend borrowing
their free audio guide machines. We tried to use our phones, but some of the walls are too thick for 4G/5G to get through.
Knowing our luck, the famous front entrance was currently covered up with scaffolding. They had attempted to make it look nice with a painted tarpaulin. But then the tarpaulin had scaffolding painted on it as well (sigh!). Didn't quite work. |
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| One of our main reasons for visiting was to take a "then-and-now" photo of JR in front of said (tarpaulin-wrapped) building. JR's father had visited in the 1960s and this was the time to replicate the photo with JR in 2025 sixty years later. With the entrance covered up, we chose to re-enact the photo in the Base Court. Not bad effort, Rob. | |
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| Walking through historical private apartments from Wolsey to Georgian kings we learnt that they often met with visitors and conducted business in various throne rooms, and also in their bedrooms. | |
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| The King's Staircase is a beautiful sight to see. Painted artwork includes Roman/Greek columns and people floating about on clouds. Painted around 1700 it also depicts protestant William III (made to look like Alexander the Great) in his victory over catholic James II and the Stuart monarchy in the 1688 revolution. | |
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| Our visit to the Tudor Kitchens was interesting although not nearly as hot as it would have been back in the day when all the fires were roaring. The menu showing a meal for the royals including (if we read it right): ale, wine, bread, stew, beef, venison, mutton, goose, whatever "conyes of gr'" is, jelly, pheasant, partridges, quails, swans (!), plovers (!), larks (!), rabbits, tarts... the list goes on. Meanwhile, the servants got bread, ale, beef and veal. | |
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| We were lucky to be there for a Remembrance Sunday event in the Clock Court. There were speeches, singing, laying of wreaths. Nice bonus experience during our visit. We decided not to join the Sunday service in the Chapel Royal. That means we didn't get to see the Chapel either. Next time, hopefully. It is a beautiful sight to see, apparently. | |
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One of the many portraits in the Haunted Gallery shows an imaginary scene: King Henry VIII with Jane Seymour to his
left and his son Edward to his right. However, Jane Seymour died in childbirth - eight
years before the portrait was painted in 1545.
We heard or saw nothing, but the gallery is allegedly haunted by Catherine Howard (wife nr 5). She ran through these rooms and corridors to find Henry VIII to plead for her life when he had charged her with adultery. He did not listen to her pleads. After she was executed at the Tower of London three months later, they buried her in the walls of the Chapel Royal. Quite understandable that one would come back as a ghost after that. |
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| We understand that these were not peaceful times, and this wall display was quite something: keep a few guns on hand, indeed! | |
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| Another not so peaceful activity was jousting. Henry the VIII loved jousting and held regular events in the Tiltyard. On our way to the Tiltyard Cafe for some lunch (less risky activity than jousting), we found these amazing bush-sculptures of two knights taking their stations to joust. | |
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| We took a walk around the property and found the kitchen guarden very interesting. It wasn't the right time of year for planting or harvesting, but there were good displays and information signs to keep our interest. Vegetables, flowers, and herbs were on display. | |
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| If we had known what we know now, we probably would not have entered the maze. It takes on average 20 minutes to reach the centre! People call for help after 45 minutes. Dating back to the 1700s, it is the oldest surviving hedge maze in the UK. Too proud to use the "cheat sheet" Hild had found. We were also too whimsical to follow the rule-of-thumb to touch your hand to the right side and that way you would successfully navigate the maze (always turn right). Maybe it was this trick (everybody touching the hedge) that made them switch from using wimpy hornbeam to sturdy yew in the 1960s? | |
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| We struggled on and didn't want to join the statistic of number of visitors who must be guided out by staff calling out instructions from an elevated platform. In a frenzy of left-right-left-right we found our way out - exhausted and relieved. | |
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| The weather held up nicely and we also walked through the Privy Garden outside the windows of William III's Apartments. It is more formal than the rest of the castle gardens. | |
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| Straight lined paths, bushes and plants in rows with perfectly manicured trees - studied carefully by Rob. | |
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| A neatly trimmed variegated holly bush/tree, and at the end of the garden is a fence with very elaborate and gilded decor. The fence is known as Jean Tijou's Screen. It was designed for William III and Mary II in 1689 by Jean Tijou - the famous ironworker. | |
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| We strolled through the Great Fountain Garden looking at their huge, trimmed yew trees. Bright green parakeets were flying around us. Lots of fun - from a distance - and hard to catch on camera. | |
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| A random passer-by took a photo of us together by the big fountain with the East Front as a backdrop. A great memory for a wonderful day out. | |
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| We had one more thing to check off our to-do list while JR was visiting: a proper Sunday roast. We chose the charming Albany pub just down the river Thames from the Hampton Court Palace. | |
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| Delicious food for hungry sightseers. We were all amazed how we managed to spend an entire day walking around the palace and gardens without noticing how time flew. | |
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| On our way back to Watersedge we dropped JR off at the tube station for his trip back to his hotel and then back to Canada. We are looking forward to more sightseeing together next time he visits - in 2026? |
Nov 2025