Bushy Tailed!

So here we are all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, so to speak. Both of us wide awake at 4am, now it's just after 5. We've both showered and had coffee and are wondering why the rest of the world isn't awake and why it's another couple of hours until brekkers (breakfast for you Americans). The joys of travel. With all the travel we've done it still gets you - you just learn not to fight it. I didn't go to bed until 10:30 and I'd had a couple pints with dinner and slept like a log until 4am rolled around and the brain yelled "Wakey-wakey!"

We've had a couple of days in this hotel, The George, a fairly new edifice in town...only 350 years old. Some old artwork on the walls of how it used to be, apparently a place for fancy dress balls and pricey weddings. Even though this is a small town, there are a lot of fine 'old money' homes and estates around (also an old Poorhouse). The George is kind of showing its age and lack of upkeep now. The reception area is now an upscale Italian restaurant and you have to enter at the back of the hotel. Excellent breakfast though with good sausage and really meaty back bacon. One thing I've never figured out or liked was hotel or B&B toast. It's underdone pale looking, then it's put on drying racks to get cold and hard before it's delivered to the table. 'Never figured that out - how hard can warm toast be?

And that, my friends, is what happened to the mind at 5am while waiting for food! Time for yet another in-room instant coffee.

We're moving on today, I want to take in Bodiam Castle, another relic from William the Conqueror's days. It still has its moat around it and is quite attractive-looking in pics. Some people think the moat was part of the castle's defense, but it was a crude septic system for the crude crappers that just direct the 'waste' into it. Must have been pleasant on a hot summer's day. Anyway, we're off to view this romantic-looking place. Photos later.

We'll find another B&B for the night and then Saturday we get into The Barn for a week's stay. Be nice to unpack properly and get settled for awhile. Then we can explore the Southeast of the country freely knowing we have a place to come home to in the evenings rather than having to start looking for B&B signs in the afternoon.