UK road trip, Hastings and Battle

I've driving across the US 4 or 5 times. It's hard to count because they weren't all direct trips. For example, summer 2005 I drove from Santa Fe to Detroit then to Florida, with stops in between. Sprint 2006 I drove from Santa Fe to California. Does that count as a cross-country trip? Probably. But I don't remember all the trips I did. I used to have a map with my cross-country road trips highlighted. The route from Urbana to Tallahassee and then to Miami was rather well marked. It was such that I was getting to get a feel for which stores were at which exits.

In Europe I've only done road trips in the UK. My first was with Karen when we went to Bath and the Cotswalds. She drive because I couldn't drive stick and the rental cars here were almost all standard. My second was after the 2004 ISMB in Glasgow, when I drove around central Scotland. I rented a bigger car because it had automatic and I could instead focus on staying on the correct side of the road.

In this most recent trip I had two days to travel. I started in Hastings. I found someone else's B&W pictures if you want to take a look, or do a Google image search for Hastings. In my posting from Hastings I mentioned the gravel on the beach. It's normal. The term is "shingle", an uncountable noun meaning "small smooth pebbles, as on a beach" It makes a nice clattering sound when the waves hit it.

In the morning I drove to downtown Hastings and walked along the beach for a short bit to the fishing boat area. They are beach-launched ships. "The largest in X" where X was variously written "England", "the UK" and "Europe". A tractor puts them into the water at high tide. They are out for 12 hours and pulled back in at the next high tide. It's a long tradition. I went to a local historical museum with various pictures and memorabilia from the last 150 years or so along with some bits about the long-term history. I went to the lifeboat station nearby. Tough-looking boat, and designed for beach launches.

October is the end of the season so things weren't all that happening. There were a few tour busses, including one full of German students. I couldn't figure out just why they were there. What's the draw? Were they all going to Battle afterwards?

I did. The Battle of Hastings was not at Hastings. The Normans (and their pals the Bretons and the Flemish) landed near Hastings but the battle was a bit north, at what is now called Battle. After the Norman Conquest was complete William had an abbey built at the site. This evolved over time and was privately owned in the 1800s. Now it's a tourist site and a school. After paying the entrance fee you get an audio device for the self-guided tour. Enter the number listed on placards to have it recount the events from the various points of view as people who were there might have.

The site has changed since then. The top of the hill upon which the English were was likely leveled somewhat. It's not a large area. This was an era when a big battle had only a few thousand people. I would like to have been there with Geoff, acting as interpreter and enthusiastic travel companion. I don't know enough of the era to understand it well enough it on my own.

Even better would be there for the yearly reenactment of the battle, in traditional garb and weapons. I missed it by a week. Signs were still up for it. I suspect finding a place to stay at the last minute would have been harder. There were flowers on the plaque marking the spot where Haroldfell. Attached to the flowers were cards, in modern and old English, with various praises and benedictions to Harold, "last of the true English kings." Like I said, I wish Geoff was with me.

Knowing modern Swedish does not help reading Old English.

Someone must have written a book about an alternative world where the Vikings attacked a week earlier, or later, and not so deplete the English foces in Battle of Stamford Bridge.

Stopped afterwards to get a pastry from "Martel of Battle." Solely because I wrote a software package named Martel.

Afterwards I had to decide what to do next. It's early afternoon Thursday and I was not expected in Oxford until evening Friday.