Homeward!

Now that we have the channel tunnel, the travel time from Belgium to England is not as long as you’d imagine, if you disregard the delays due to roadworks for a minute. We sort out the cottage and set off around nine, that should give us plenty of time to do some sightseeing along the way.

First up: Fishbourne Roman Palace. Again, Arne and I have already seen it, but we don’t mind visiting again to give the other people in the group a chance to see it as well. Traffic is not too bad and we’re used to driving on the left, so it’s pretty relaxing. The museum has a small space with educational panels explaining the history of the site, but most of the surface is taken up with stunning mosaics. It was discovered by a work man digging a trench for a new water main and with some smart PR and networking they were able to get the funds to stop the planned housing development and build a museum instead. The mosaics are still in their original position (except one, which was found under another mosaic and which they moved so they could display both) and they’re all that’s left of the huge palace that once stood here. In square meters, it was larger than Buckingham Palace!

There’s regular guided tours and they give you a lot of extra info, pointing out details you wouldn’t notice on your own: for example the deliberate imperfection to avoid offending the gods, or a makers mark. There are a few theories as to who built the palace, but in any case the investment was enormous. Many of the mosaics must have been done by roman craftsman, as the designs are very similar to what is found in Italy in the same period. Some of the tiny tiles are made of stones or with pigmentation that was imported from places as far away as Afghanistan. Can you image what a farmer must have felt when walking into such grandeur and opulence?

We have a quick snack in the nearby café and then take off for Arundel Castle. It looked big on the website, but again we’re totally surprised at the size of the parking lots and crowds. We’re just planning to visit the gardens, but decide to split the group when we discover a free guided tour will start soon: Arne and I will visit the gardens while some of the others follow the tour.

The estate around the castle is not so big, but it has a few interesting places. We see a collection of spicy peppers in the hothouses, the organic vegetable garden and beautiful mixed borders. The latter are most interesting for us, as inspiration for our own garden in Belgium. We see a lot of perennials that we already have, as well as interesting varieties and plants we didn’t know yet. We do the whole tour with frequent stops for pictures and research, our teen cousin who’s tagging along being very patient about the whole thing.

A pair of swans lounge on the path through the water gardens. They have cygnets nearby, so they can be quite aggressive and we wisely decide to turn back. Never mind, we’re running out of time anyway. The reservation for LeShuttle allows you to take trains earlier or later, but even so we don’t want to dawdle. Because of the time zones, we’ll lose an hour arriving in Belgium.

The drive goes pretty smoothly this time, though we’re still confused at all these road works where nobody’s actually working! On the M20 there’s a 12 mile stretch where traffic towards the coast is split, with port bound trucks staying on the three eastward lanes, while the westward lanes are divided into two narrow lanes for east bound and west bound cars each. Confusing.. Google turns up some more info! Operation Brock allows the trucks to pool into a separate waiting queue on the M20 in case of ferry or train disruptions, without stopping the local traffic. An inconvenience now, but I can image a necessity if there are disruptions.

We hop on a shuttle train around six and have an uneventful train ride. The double decker doesn’t sway a lot, so I’m not too much bothered by motion sickness. We stop for a quick dinner in a Burger King in France and are home about two hours later, around ten pm.