A week in Bexhill

We had a very enjoyable week in Bexhill, East Sussex with Heather's Dad Colin (Pops) and wife Margie (Nan). Our drive down from Heathrow (about 2 hours of driving) on Wednesday was quite tough with a number of stops for a quite restless Jordan and took about 4 hours. We arrived to our welcoming party of Colin and Margie outside our first B and B which we were staying for 2 nights. It was a warm sunny day so Pops, Matthew and myself went for a walk. After an obligatory stop at a pub for a welcoming beer (about half the price of Perth), we came across the local fountains along the beach promenade - Matthew had a ball and ran through the fountains for quite some time and was soaked through by the end. The afternoon breeze then made the walk back to the B and B quite chilly! The six of us all had dinner together at the B and B that night before heading down for an early night - our experience from the last trip was that jetlag makes young ones wake up early! Sure enough, Matthew was first up at 2:30am and was not the slightest bit interested in sleeping again. So I took him for a walk along the beach promenade and streets before swapping him over with Jordan at 4am! Unfortunately the boys love playing and making lots of noise together. We made this a bit easier the next day by heading round to Colin and Margie's house at 5:30am (they are both early risers) for a play in the backyard with toys and trucks. Towards the end of the week Matthew was nearly on local time, moving his wake up time by about an hour later each day

We swapped B and B's on the third day as we couldn't get into the one we wanted for the full seven days in Bexhill. We were glad we made the move as the room was much bigger which was essential when there are 4 of you and a huge pile of luggage - Jordan needed a bit of space to play on the ground too, and is even slowly moving himself around commando-style. We stayed at this B and B 2 years ago so knew it would be the right place to stay. They also did a great breakfast and catered to all our needs which was much help. Colin and Margie joined us for breakfast on a couple of occasions as well.

Matthew enjoyed a few local playgrounds with nearby Egerton Park being his favourite. This is a very large 'eco' playground made from recycled timbers and caters for toddlers right up to big kids. He spent plenty of time on the big spinning wheel and never got dizzy from it. On the sunny day that I took him there it was packed with kids, however a couple days later when the weather wasn't so good (cool and drizzly) we were the only ones there! The four of us went to feed the ducks in the lake with Matthew ensuring we ran out of bread quite quickly. The rain did eventually subside and the boys had a fun time on the play equipment. Their favourite would have to have been the see-saw, Jordan getting the giggles as he bounced up and down.

The rain continued for a couple of days so we headed to nearby Eastbourne one day to an indoor play gym with some big slides and ladders. At one point there we actually lost Matthew and thought he must have escaped out an open door when others were leaving! But after a bit of a panic and searching around the whole building we found him up the top of the playgym having a great time. The sunny weather did return and we enjoyed spending time with Colin and Margie having coffees and tea on the beach promenade. Matthew loved his time on the beach with Pops throwing rocks (no sand on these beaches!) at low tide as well as playing in their backyard with trucks, or hide and seek or being pushed around in the wheelbarrow.

On our final full day Colin and Margie took us to a Pub in nearby Ninfield for a big roast lunch and beer which was most enjoyable. There was also a nearby playground (number 6 for the trip so far) which Adrian and Colin took Matthew to for a play. On the Wednesday our week in Bexhill was over and after breakfast it was time to pack up for our complicated journey over to France - drive back to Heathrow in the afternoon, stay the night in a hotel, fly early the following morning to Geneva, pick up a hire car and then drive a couple of hours to our first stop in France. After needing so many stops on the drive down to Bexhill we were dreading what would happen on the return to London.......instead both boys slept the whole drive back to Heathrow making the journey a breeze! We had plenty of time on our hands so Matthew and myself went outside the hotel (near the end of one of the runways) to watch planes take off. Matthew had a ball for over an hour and clearly loved planespotting. We had dinner in Terminal 5 before heading down for an early-ish night ready for our big journey to France the next day. The hamlet of Le Bessay was our first stop and we'll tell you all about it in our next post!

Jordan enjoying playing on the floor at Dunselma B and B

Jordan having fun with Pops in his new outfit from Nan and Pops