Mind the Gap: A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

One of the first trips I took without a tour guide was to the nearby village of Rottingdean. We had passed through the village on a bus tour of Brighton and Hove within the first week here. Rottingdean was once home to some famous Englishmen, most famously writer Rudyard Kipling. We visited on a Sunday afternoon to have a traditional pub lunch and later in the afternoon, cream tea. Like Brighton, Rottingdean is right on the English Channel so the first thing we did was walk down to the rocky shore. It felt so good to be near the water- feeling the salty cold wind against my face. The shore was actually rather crowded with families, joggers and cyclists; despite the cold weather.

For lunch we went to a very old local pub called the Plough Inn. I've been noticing that when we travel in groups hosts and hostesses' eyes bug out a bit when we tell how big our party is. Oftentimes we split up and sit at different tables- which hopefully diffuses some of the American noise level that comes with some of my friends. Luckily though this pub had a table large enough for all of us to sit around. The food was great! We all ordered different meals though ironically, none of us actually ordered the traditional roast, which we've been told is a pub tradition on Sundays. After lunch we wandered through the town. Most of the shops were closed so we walked through the picturesque old neighborhoods, explored St. Margaret's Church courtyard & cemetery and visited a monument for local soldiers who fought and died in World Wars I & II.

The traditional teahouse we visited was like something out of a fairy-tale. A quaint, idyllic place- I actually saw mothers bringing their young daughters here to teach them the proper way to serve a cream tea. Cream tea consists of tea with all the fixings (sugar and milk or cream), scones (usually made with sultanas otherwise known as raisins in the States), jam, and clotted cream. The clotted cream is like a sweet whipped butter; locals sometimes like to really spread it on their scones, but I, being a bit more calorie conscious used it sparingly- it is delicious though. Our tea was lovely, the scones were fresh from the oven, both the jam and clotted cream was homemade. There was a fireplace next to our table- it was so warm and cozy I could have stayed there all afternoon. The village isn't that far from Uni but with the bus system it took us just over an hour to go from Falmer to Brighton then finally over to Rottingdean. We had a relaxing day; definitely a good one-time trip.