Road Trip - Burley, New Forest (final part)

....and oh did it rain- and rain and rain and rain!!!  (you get the idea it RAINED).  We had been so luck up til this with the weather, so we really couldn't complain.  In fact it came down so much I couldn't take photos of our location!  Such a disappointment.  Our Hotel was the Moorhill House Hotel at Burley in the New Forest.   Although I didn't take a photo of the shop, there is one that had been there for many years, it has now changed to a place making solid oak and pine kitchen fitments, but has kept the old name of John Willies - years ago it had been a Saddlers (there was a very sad story regarding the family that ran it many years ago, but I'll go into that in the future at some point - we do intend to return here after all).

I did get a pic of the bar at the Hotel, where we had our evening meal (and yes William was there with us too).




and a sketch

I have to say that this hotel was lovely - in fact we hope to go back one day...it is definitely on our Return to List.

So, what to do when it is pouring with rain and the wind is getting up - well, we took to the car and travelled to Southampton and surrounding area.  That way we could each take turns going into shops.  I took the opportunity too of sketching in the car - what better occupation on a wet day...

we also met up with old friends for lunch in a pub, we got there early so I sketched - Again!

here's a photo of it...(any local readers of this should probably recognise this place)...

and on one of the wooden beams is a proverb :

in case you have trouble reading it, the proverb is:

"The church is near but the road is icy.  The pub is far away but I will walk carefully"

(although what that exactly means I'm not sure...may be it's make sure you stay upright and get to the pub for the drink you need after the trauma of trying to get there in the first place!!!)

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That just left our journey home, via Weymouth - and how lovely the weather improved for us:

for years there have been Sand sculptures along the sea front


- they have gone very high tech and house them in a sort of fiberglass hut:

and then we drove over to Portland  and enjoyed the view...

and so on home

We had a wonderful road trip

I hope you have enjoyed the journey too.

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Road trip - to the seaside

A day out in Brighton, a popular seaside town on the south coast

I walked along the pier for these next pix...

as you see it was fairly clear skies, but choppy seas..

I did briefly sketch and added watercolour later on...

further down the coast the sea was really fierce...

Road Trip - Arundel

And so we travel down to Arundel in Sussex on our second Hotel stay for this road trip...
                                                                                                
Our first sighting of Arundel is the castle

 but No, we weren't staying there ........our Hotel was the Norfolk Arms in the centre of the town

William soon learnt his way around....





Very cosy...this is where we had breakfast - we obviously couldn't take William into their Restaurant, so they set up breakfast for us in this room......

 Arundel isn't all that big (even though it has a huge Castle) - We used to visit here years ago when we lived nearer to it, so it was nice to look around and see what had changed...(and not a great deal had).....

 a glimpse of the castle here and there....

 and a closer look at one of the entrance gates and then a view from along side...

Arundel is an area that has also suffered from flooding recently.  It is about 5 miles inland, yet has a tidal river called the Arun (hence Arundel's name)

and that had overflowed...

this next picture shows a bin and a seat which are actually on a pathway...now you would need a boat to get to it!

and between this avenue of trees lays a pathway...although you wouldn't think so...

I've put together a little slideshow of pictures (no sound though)...

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