Easter Adventures: Friday

This Easter, we realised we had left it too late to get cheap flights anywhere, so we decided to stay in England. Instead, we hired a car for the weekend so we could explore the countryside.

After a little sleep in, we picked up the car, packed a few things for the day and headed out to Battle. Battle is a relatively small town near Hastings, where (perhaps unsurprisingly) the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. After winning the battle, William the Conqueror built Battle Abbey on the site of the battle, which partially remains today. It was very cool to see where 11th century monks would have read, ate and slept!

 

Some of the buildings are mostly intact, but some are completely gone. I think most of the remaining parts were part of the 13th century additions to the Abbey.

 

It was also really cool to be back, as I had visited Battle in 2008 with my family. Brings back some memories, while also making new ones. Very cool.

 

After grabbing a quick bakery lunch in the square outside the Abbey, we headed down to Hastings. However, it was a lovely sunny afternoon, and to say that Hastings was busy would be a crazy understatement! It took us almost an hour just to find a carpark! It was a lovely town though, similar to Brighton with many beachfront amusements. We took the West Hill lift up to the top of the hill to visit Hastings Castle ruins.

 

Hastings Castle was the first castle built by William when he arrived in England, making it the first Norman castle in England. It was built even before the Battle of Hastings, originally out of wood. After winning the battle and becoming king, he went back to the castle and built it in stone.

 

Unfortunately, it didn't have such a great history after that. It was ordered destroyed, than freak storms destroyed the cliffs in the 13th century (and the entire keep crumbled into the sea), it was attacked by the French, Henry VIII ordered all the monasteries destroyed (they took its roof!), and it got bombed during WWII. What a history.

 

After returning back down the hill, we wandered Hastings some more. The seafront was lovely, as was the seafood! I'd like to go back (although probably by train) to explore the town more.

After Hastings, we drove around Eastbourne to visit the Seven Sisters. This also has some intense memories, as I lived mere miles away in Seaford on my gap year in 2008. Birling Gap was just as I remembered it, cold and windy but the Seven Sisters are just beautiful. We hopefully got some great proper photos there too!

 

By that time is was after 6pm, so straight back to London for us. Tomorrow, Stonehenge!