Sussex with Stephanie

Sarah's friend Stephanie (who is originally from London) was back in town visiting her family recently, and so last weekend we headed down to her family home in Crawley (just south of London) to pay her a visit.

We headed down Saturday evening, and after being introduced to Mrs Hyner and Jasper (their gorgeous collie who wouldn't stop playing fetch) headed to a gorgeous little pub (the Hedgehog Inn) for a great dinner. The English seem to have elevated pub food to another level, where you order what would probably be standard food in Australia, but you get something quite gourmet.

Sarah, Stephanie and Mrs Hyner outside the Hedgehog

Sunday we had a lie-in and a lazy breakfast before heading out to explore Sussex. Crawley is the southernmost tip of London before you hit the green belt and so driving south of there you pass through the Ashdown Forest, plus lots of countryside and cute little towns.

We headed South and West to Hartfield, home of A. A. Milne (of Winnie the Pooh fame). There we had some tea at the House on Pooh Corner, and visited the Poohsticks bridge. For the uneducated (as I was) Poohsticks involves two (or more) people dropping their stick of choice into the river upstream from the bridge, and walking across the bridge to see which stick comes out downstream first. It is a very relaxing pasttime, and quite a popular one judging by the number of sticks which had accumulated downstream of the bridge.

Sarah and Stephanie at the House at Pooh Corner, planning our next move

Stephen and Stephanie, sticks at the ready...

We obviously weren't the first people to play this game...

From Hartfield we headed to Slougham for lunch, and some more fantastic pub food in the garden of the Chequers pub, and then to Nyman, a national trust property. The gardens at Nyman were beautiful, while the house itself was originally a much larger but partially destroyed by fire. The damaged sections have been left partially ruined, which looked fantastic with the Ivy growing amonst them. I think, though, that we were the youngest people there by at least 40 years!

Stephen and Stephanie at Nyman House

We had a lovely time visiting Stephanie, and it was great to meet some of her family and see some places around where she grew up. It never ceases to amaze just how how different London is from the countryside around it.