Bridge on the River Arun, Arundel, England. May 2013
On one of my free weekends doing the CELTA course in London, Adrian FVdR and I took a trip to Chichester to see the cathedral and Arundel was a scenic castle town we visited along the way. We left from London Victoria Station one Saturday morning for our day trip. The train conductor announced for a full HOUR that carriages 1-3 would go to one destination while carriages 4-6 to another after Crawley. The announcements got tedious to the point that Adrian and I said to each other "you would have to be a complete idiot to head in the wrong direction". Well, never underestimate your own idiocy.
We had counted the carriages getting on the train from the opposite direction and were in the wrong one. As soon as the train left the station and the train split, we realized our error and told the conductor, who rolled his eyes and told us to get off at the next station and wait for the train in the opposite direction (which thank God was not a terribly long wait). We waited on the platform at a country station where a group of raucous, drunk women had just left a hen party. They were enamoured with Adrian's size (he is extremely tall) and proceeded to come over to us and start to molest him (quite literally). Adrian was politely trying to escape his "womenhandling" and I was nearly pissing myself laughing. Luckily, the train arrived to save the day and we made our way back to catch the correct train to Arundel. Unfortunately, we had lost a fair amount of time, so in order to see Chichester Cathedral, we had to rush through Arundel. For the rest of the day, I found myself spontaneously bursting into laughter about what had happened - with Adrian curtly chiming in, "f..k off."
After we finally arrived in Arundel, we found the place had a tiny medieval core, but the star of the town was the castle. We took the tour (perhaps it was obligatory? I don't recall) and found it informative hearing names of famous people from British history that I thought I should have recognized. During the Q&A with the guide I asked if "Anne of Arundel" (Anne Arundel County Maryland's namesake) was from this place and got a firm "no". Apparently, not the first American to ask the question, there was ANOTHER Arundel in England from which said "Anne" hailed. Oh well...
A kind of Renaissance Fair was being held during our visit, so people were dressed up in time-appropriate attire doing all kinds of medieval arts and crafts. The timing of the visit was fortuitous, just - we blew a chunk of it with our train misfortune. The castle, the tour, and the fair, in combination, made our visit there one of the best European castle visits ever. How often can one visit a castle and have everyone dressed up in period costumes complete with knights jousting?
Arundel, England and Arundel Castle definitely got my stamp of approval. We had a great time and the town and castle were exactly what a tourist expects going to Europe. If you happen to take the train from Victoria Station, London, however, do note the carriage number!
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