The big wheel

I spent a chunk of yesterday on trains, eventually emerging at my sister’s in Brighton. Both my younger sisters live in Brighton now, in different houses, and I haven’t been there for years. Well, come to that I haven’t seen them except on Zoom since pre-Covid. D’s new house is in a lovely situation; despite being quite close to town it has views over the Downs, foxes snoozing in the garden, and a field of cows opposite.

Today we decided to go for a walk on Beachy Head. Sadly, the weather has deteriorated considerably and it was absolutely dreary. But we enjoyed a long and scenic ride on the top of a double-decker bus across the South Downs. Lovely views. Or they would have been if it hadn’t been foggy. We stopped at the visitor centre which has a nice little museum and a gift shop with mostly nice local items rather than Chinese tat.

Then we did a very easy walk down to Eastbourne (blip) where we rewarded ourselves with a leisurely lunch at the Tea Chalet until we were driven from the table by jackdaws. We walked into town and had an even more circuitous bus ride back to Brighton, giving its true meaning to the phrase “going round the houses”. We didn’t get back till after five. We’d done over 13,000 steps according to N’s counter, but most of them were on pavements. More travelling tomorrow!