Hastings diaries : On the buses !

As both my dad and my sister have a free bus pass (with a handy plus one for Emily), the bus worked out as quite a good way of getting out and about when we were over. I paid for a one day travel card, and we could go exploring wherever we wanted. (My mum stayed at home to take advantage of the peace and quiet !)

We decided to start off with a bus ride to Battle Abbey, where, back in the year 1066, the armies of King Harold and William the Conqueror clashed at the Battle of Hastings.

We took a few photos of Battle Abbey from the outside, but didn't want to pay the full price for the English Heritage entrance fee, so we headed down the side instead.

We started off by revising our history on the William The Conqueror Trail noticeboard.

Then we turned our backs on Battle Abbey and headed off down a little country road to see what we'd discover.

This led us away from the town part and into the countryside, literally just a couple of hundred metres away.

Down the back lane, we instantly stumbled across a historical artefact and spent a while trying to decide what it was for. A cooking pot?  A bell? 

The second object that we found was easier to describe : a monument to the Battle Bonfire society, with a picture of J. D. Sellings in front of the abbey.

We soon noticed that the public footpath led you straight through the field of cows, so we decided to go and explore.

We wandered some way down the path looking at the inhabitants, before deciding to head back round and continue the way we'd first started, into Battle town centre.

The farmer was very friendly and told us not to worry about the cows as we wandered along the path.

We headed back down the way we had first come.

This brought us back to where we had started our little trip, and we decided to head to the supermarket for some sandwiches, before going any further.

With full bellies, we were ready to explore the goodies on offer in the little charity shops, before jumping back on the bus for our second part of the day.

We went back into Hastings and got on another bus, which took us along to the Sovereign Centre, along towards Bexhill. This was as far as we could go on our bus tickets, but that was fine for us.

Heading through the tunnel brought us straight out to the beach and some traditional painted beach chalets.

We wandered back along the beach towards Hastings, taking note of the dry cliffs. We kept an eye out for fossils, but didn't manage to find any !

It was a really peaceful bit of beach and, apart from us, there was nobody there.

The sea had gone out quite a way, leaving some expanses of rock for us to explore. We lost count of how many winkles and cockles we saw !

We followed the path along to the bridge over the railway, then waited for our final bus back home. Phew !