Peckish Travels

Bob and I are together again for our first house sit (and actually first trip) in Asia. Our house sit is in Songdo, a suburb of Seoul, so we flew into Seoul and spent a day in the city center before starting our house sit.

We weren’t sure what to expect as we haven’t learned Korean but while we haven’t met a lot of people that speak English the signage does tend to be in both Korean and English which has been very helpful. Since we wanted to make the most of our first day not knowing how often we’d be coming into the city from our house sit, we arranged for a private walking tour with a local. This was a great way to see some of Seoul, get some good info on what we were seeing as well as learn some pointers for our visit.

We were to meet our guide at 10 am on Friday having arrived at our hotel about 8:00 pm on Thursday. Luckily, our room came with breakfast, so we had a very atypical breakfast (scrambled eggs but also kimchi, dumplings, salads, boiled rice) before heading off for our tour.

First, a couple of photos from our walk to the tour.

We met our guide just inside the entrance to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, the oldest of Seoul’s five palaces. She had informed us she would be in “blue padding” which apparently means a long blue (though really gray) padded jacket. She won us over by purchasing us each a hot pack (hand warmer) that they sell all over here. It was still in the 30s and our tour was mostly all outside, so they came in handy.

The palace and grounds were impressive, but truth in advertising, the buildings that we saw were built after WWII as the originals (already destroyed and rebuilt after a fire) were then destroyed again during the Japanese occupation during the war. Had they been original they would have dated back to the 1300s.

Other things of note: the grounds were used by the king but also by the government who dictated much of the king (and his family’s) behavior including determining when the king and queen could sleep together. Apparently this was to optimize chances for healthy offspring. For her part, the Queen was lucky enough to “get” to care for the household, including the 10-15 concubines typically kept by the king.

Small structure on the grounds of the palace

From the palace we walked to Bukchon Hanok Village, an area with traditional Korean houses, but on the way we saw this…

The Hanok Village was lovely and people live in the traditional-style homes that are obviously renovated and now have modern conveniences. (Interesting note: heating here is typically done through heating floors). Unfortunately, the people living here must deal with the groups of tourists that descend upon them to see their homes. Locals from the city walk around in yellow vests that read “quiet please.” Our guide said this was mostly for the Chinese tourists who tend to be quite loud. We have not seen many US, Canadian, nor European tourists.

Our guide walked us through the popular shopping area of Insadong.

In the Insadong district is Jogyesa, Seoul’s most prominent Buddhist temple.

A 400 year old tree with lanterns

We ended our tour with a trip to the market.

Drying whole fish

Stay tuned for scenes from our post tour outing on Friday.

The last real day trip that we did out of Rustington was on Friday to Portsmouth. We had a map of the city, and as soon as I saw that it was the birthplace of Charles Dickens I wanted to go. Bob discovered that the home/museum was only open from a Friday through Sunday which helped us determine which day to go. Now having been we’d like to go back to explore the city more completely. Portsmouth was a 50 minute train ride from the Angmering Rail Station, about a 30 minute walk from our home.

We saw the following in or near the city center.

We started off for the Charles Dickens home for our first stop. The house was small and fairly quick to peruse with paddles in each room to provide information on what you were seeing. My favorite part was that the gift shop sells his books for 2.50 pounds (about $3) each! Of course I had to buy one.

From the town center we walked to Gunwharf Quay to see the Spinnaker Tower that we had seen on the news channel as well as to walk along the busy wharf. It is a great area with lots of retail, a transportation center, info along the coast about D-Day as the ships sailed out of Portsmouth, and housing. We continued down the coast along the Millennial Walk. Due to time constraints we left lots undone here. We’d like to get back to visit the D-Day Museum, go up in the Spinnaker Tower, see some of the old ships, and then sail over to the Isle of Wight or Jersey or Guernsey.

Photos from the Millennial Walk —

An impressive wars memorial

We went to Portsmouth on Friday. Late Sunday morning, Bob left to begin his journey to our next house sit in Denver for one of his classmates. I stayed until Sunday night and am now in London to begin my journey back. I’ll be headed to Illinois to try to be of some use to my sister. The last photo is me with George and Hamish during my last bit with them. Super sweet dogs, there were some tears shed (who knew dogs could cry?! 😁) as I walked out to catch my taxi.

Bob and I did not walk to Chichester, but we did walk to Anmering to catch the train. This is the same station we arrived at a few days prior when our homeowners picked us up. This train station is a little over 2 miles from our house. The train to Chichester was a quick 20 minutes. We booked an open-ended return ticket since we didn’t know how long we’d stay. We arrived a little before 11 and ended up taking the 2 pm train back.

Chichester is the only city in West Sussex. It has a long history having been important in Anglo-Saxon times and has a 12th century cathedral that is currently undergoing restoration work.

One of the things that intrigued us about Chichester were the walls that remain around part of the town. However having started on the looped wall walk around the city, we took a brief deter to wander the lovely grounds of the Bishops Palace Garden. This lies between the cathedral and the city walls and is a public park maintained by the city.

The remainder of the wall walk took us around other parks and some of the town center .

From the wall walk we went into the Town center. We even stopped at a cafe for a sausage roll for Bob and a coffee for me. It was a lively place, as there was a climate change rally going on near the Chichester across.

The day after our walk to Worthing, we decided to walk to Arundel, a really cute market town with a medieval castle and Roman Catholic Church about 6 miles from Rustington. Again, as with Worthing, we walked there and bused back. The walk was not as pleasant since we were away from the sea and mostly along busy roads. We really liked the town though and hope to walk back there again but this time along the River Arun From Littlehampton.

Arundel Castle was initially built in 1067. It was damaged in the English Civil War and then restored in the 18th and 19th centuries. We just paid to visit the chapel and grounds so didn’t get inside the castle itself.

Another view of the gardens

After the castle, we walked around the town before catching the number 9 bus back to Rustington.

We have been trying to take advantage of the great late summer weather by getting out as much as possible before our pm walks with the dogs. One day we did an easy 6 mile walk to Worthing down the coast to the east from Rustington (opposite direction from Littlehampton). It is amazing to us how connected these communities are and how easy it is to walk along the coast either on footpaths on lawns, narrower paved paths, or large promenades. It made the walk feel like a nice, easy stroll, and we only seemed to be out in the country for a small part of it. We always seemed to have company along the way with lots of people out for their walk or exercising their dogs.

Worthing is a larger town and borough of about 100,000. It’s only 10 miles west of Brighton. As with many seaside towns, it has a pier and rides. After we arrived, we had a nice walkabout around town before catching a bus back to Rustington.

Lovely flowers — another thing I love about the UK!

The bus ride home was so easy. The Coastliner bus runs every 10 minutes and goes from Brighton to Littlehampton. It’s a double decker, so we did the touristy thing and rode in the front seats up on top. The following are some pics from the ride home.

Bob and I have landed in Rustington, England where we are caring for two dogs, Hamish and George, while their humans are vacationing in Tenerife. The dogs are quite opposite in looks, age, and temperament, but they are both great dogs.

Hamish is the elder statesman and ruler of the roost, even with asthma and a bit of arthritis. He is a 13 year old Norfolk Terrier. He is a slow mover, but likes to greet other dogs that we see on our walks on the great lawn down by the coast. George is a 2 year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier, young and intense, but really wants you to love him and will excitedly greet you whenever you’ve been out for awhile. On walks, however, he is completely stone-focused. As soon as we let him off lead he looks for a stone to hold in his mouth during the walk while he chases another one that you throw. He then runs to the second stone and continues to point to it until you pick it up and throw it again. He completely ignores every other dog in the area.

The two are difficult to walk together, so I usually hang with Hamish while George tests Bob’s arm (and tolerance for slobber).

Rustington is small village in the Arun District of West Sussex. It’s about midway between Chichester and Brighton. It’s a lovely area and seems to be popular with retirees. Our home is about two blocks from the sea. I know, it’s a rough life.

The village is a little less than two miles from Littlehampton, the most populous parish in the Arun District. It’s a seaside resort just down the coast from Rustington. We walked there on our first full day in Rustington to check it out.

This next photo had me questioning what problems have arisen in this grocery store bathroom.

For our second day in Brighton, we started with a great audio-guide tour of the Royal Pavilion. This was built as a royal home for George IV. It then ended up being sold by Queen Victoria and used in various capacities, including a hospital for Indian soldiers during WWI. It is now owned by the city which bought it from the government for 56,000 pounds. It is gorgeous — Indian-inspired on the outside and Chinese-themed on the inside. Unfortunately no photos are allowed inside, so you’ll have to take our word that it is worth a visit if you are ever in Brighton.

From the pavilion, we walked through town to the train station to print out our tickets for the next day. The city was hopping! There was a soccer game that day, a triathlon the next, and lots of people in town celebrating various things. We also got a great history of a church that we wandered into, as well as some local history, by one of the church parishioners.

We walked back to the beach to see it during a busy time. It was hopping. We can’t imagine how busy it must get during summer?

Well it’s not New York where apparently the play is based, and it has nothing to do with surviving on Broadway. It’s just a brief few words and pics to capture Bob and my time in Brighton, England. This was where we chose to spend a couple of days after Hawarden, Wales and before our house sit in Little Hampton, England.

Brighton is located in the county of East Sussex in Southern England. It’s about 47 miles south of London and has a population of about 160,000. We enjoyed our time in this bustling seaside city.

Feel like the world’s a little topsy-turvy? It just might be.

If you keep walking down the boardwalk past the pier, you eventually come to a retail/residential area called the Marina. We loved that there were at least 3 levels of passageway along the water — the boardwalk next to the shore, the street above, and a walking path in-between. You could also walk on the beach, but the stones makes that a bit cumbersome.

From the seaside, we walked into the city near the Kemptown and Laine’s districts where there was a lot of retail as well as some outdoor markets in the narrow, older streets.

British Airways created a i360 ride right on the boardwalk . We had to do it. It was about a 25 minute ride, and we were joined by members of a wedding party that got married in the gazebo.