My time in Hastings, UK

In September 1983 (16th till 19th) my mother and I joined a weekend trip to my hometown Schwerte's twintown Hastings on the coast of East Sussex and that's how we met our longtime friends Michael and Rosemary and their two sons from St. Leonards-on-Sea. For our first visit they took us on the Kent & East Sussex Railway, an old steam train, and we visited the town of Hastings.

In March 1984 they made their first return visit to Schwerte and in the autumn of 1984 I returned to Hastings with my sister Anja. This time we visited Battle Abbey which stands near the battlefields of the Battle of Hastings of 1066 and Bateman's, the former family home of Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book.

During our family summer holiday in 1986 we spent the first couple of nights on a campsite near Hastings. We visited our Hastings friends and went to see the battlefield at Battle with them before we continued on our trip.

Then in October 1986 my sister Anja and I came to Hastings again on another town twinning trip during which we visited the medieval town of Rye. There was also an Italian girl from Milan visiting.
 

Beachy Head
            Beachy Head

In October 1987 I was back in Hastings with my whole family. This twinning visit took place just after a severe storm that caused uprooted rees and damage to buildings. We saw toppled chimneys, trees that had fallen on top of cars, a church steeple that had collapsed and so on. We visited Rye and Beachy Head with its lighthouse at the bottom of the cliffs.

On Saturday, 10th June 1989, the summer after I had completed school, my parents took me, my bike and my suitcase to the Zeebrugge-Dover ferry to spend the summer with our friends Michael and Rosemary in St. Leonards. I was to stay for two months and it was really a great experience, the first time I lived abroad for a while.

 
I toured Hastings and St. Leonards a lot with my bike, going up and down the hills, which earned me the nickname of the mad cyclist. Apparently going by bike wasn't too common then. I visited Hastings castle and a fashion show in Bexhill. I also went to a funfair a couple of times and once in a while I went to the cinema. Michael, who's a solicitor, once took me to court in Bexhill and Rosemary and I went to pick strawberries for a strawberry tea one Saturday. On Sundays I accompanied them to church (Methodist), which I liked much better than going to church here in Germany as it was much more modern, with more modern music and a lot of young people, and people stayed for a chat with a cup of tea afterwards which was nice. It was a very hot summer and all the grass turned yellow. That summer Michael and Rosemary had a portable swimming-pool installed in their garden which the kids and I used frequently. Rosemary and I sometimes went to a public swimming-pool in the mornings. Once we even went on a family outing to the beach and we swam in the Channel! The water was still cold but just about bearable. I believe in the eight weeks of my stay any rainy days didn't amount to anything more than a week's worth.

Hastings Pier
Hastings Pier

Hastings Beach
Hastings Beach
 
On 20th June I started my job as waitress at Combe Haven Holiday Park in Hastings/St. Leonards. They used to have a fastfood restaurant for holiday makers. My shifts were usually from 9 a.m. till 3 p.m. or from 3 p.m. till 9 p.m., 5-6 days per week. I worked with a number of young British people but also two Norwegian girls (both named Anita, one blond and one dark-haired) who also spent the summer abroad. So it came that the three of us occasionally went out together. A few times we went to a student disco at the Hastings Pier which they knew from their previous stay during a language course. I worked at Combe Haven until Sunday, 30th July, a total of six weeks. The staff and our boss were very nice.

On 23rd June I went to London for the day by train. On 3rd July Michael and Rosemary took me to Wimbledon together with their two sons and a cousin and we did a boat tour on the Themse in London. On 22nd July we went on another family outing to Bodiam Castle, a moated castle which is a ruin today, but still looks complete from the outside. It is sometimes used as a film location. A group of Morris Dancers just entered the castle when we were there which was a good spectacle.

Bodiam Castle
Bodiam Castle

 Royal Pavillion
Royal Pavilion
 
On 25th July Michael had to go to a county council meeting in Lewes and he offered me a ride to visit the towns of Lewes and Brighton. I visited the ruins of the Norman Castle and the Barbican House with the Museum of Sussex Archaeology in Lewes and the oriental-style Royal Pavillion in Brighton. Brighton came to fame in the 18th century as a seaside resort.

Royal Pavillion
Royal Pavilion

Palace Pier
Palace Pier, Brighton


On 27th July I went to London with my host family to attend the Royal Tournament at Earls Court (£9 for the afternoon performance starting at 2 p.m.), which used to be the oldest and biggest Military Tattoo in the World, held from 1880 until 1999.

On 2nd August Rosemary took me and one of her sons to Scotney Castle which is surrounded by beautiful gardens and to the town of Tunbridge Wells. On 3rd August Michael and I went to the horse races in Brighton. On Saturday, 5th August, I went horse-riding myself, at Beauport Park Riding Stables in St. Leonards.

Scotney Castle
Scotney Castle

 
On Wednesday, 9th August 1989, my host family accompanied me back to Germany. We went by car and took the Dover-Calais ferry, and when we reached my hometown Schwerte, we went on a few trips around that area with both families (visiting Phantasialand in Cologne as well as Dortmund, Münster and Königswinter) before they returned to the UK on 14th August.

During our Easter holiday, on 2nd April 1990, I went to Hastings with my parents to visit our friends. We went by car and took the Zeebrugge-Dover ferry. On the 3rd we visited Bateman's and Bodiam Castle, on the 4th we went to Lewes  and Brighton and on the 5th to Hever Castle in Kent, a moated mansion dating back to the 13th century, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII's and mother of Queen Elizabeth I, executed in 1536. On the 6th we took the Dover-Ostend ferry to the Netherlands where we spent another night before returning back home.

Katja at Bodiam Castle

Lewes County Council

Brighton

At Bodiam Castle

At Lewes County Council

Brighton
 
On 24th Septemer 1991 Michael and Rosemary came to see my family in Schwerte. In the next three days we visited a garden show in Dortmund, Altena castle and the town of Iserlohn. On Saturday the 28th they took me back with them to Hastings. We visited the "Smuggler's Adventure" in the Hastings caves on the Sunday. And on the Monday my big adventure began and I was to start my studies abroad at the University of Reading. Michael and Rosemary were so kind to take me to Reading by car and drop me off at my student hall. From then on I was on my own, but I went to see them back in Hastings several times during my stay at Reading.

On 9th November I took a train to Hastings for the weekend (£14.20). We had a bonfire and fireworks night to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. I also went back to Hastings for Christmas and the New Year. It was very interesting to spend Christmas in another country. On the 24th we went to Midnight Communion. Presents were opened in the morning of the 25th, unlike in Germany where the main day for exchanging presents is the evening of the 24th. And everyone sends Christmas cards to everyone which are hung on a string against the wall in people's houses. I also found Christmas was more jolly than in Germany, with party crackers and all. On Boxing Day we went to see a pantomime "Cinderella". Usually there are no fireworks on New Year's Eve as is the custom in Germany, but Michael saved a few for me from Guy Fawkes Day! On Saturday, 4th January 1992, we visited the seaside resort Eastbourne.

Eastbourne Pier
   Eastbourne Pier

Eastbourne
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              Eastbourne

Eastbourne Pier
Eastbourne Pier
(view 3 different versions of this picture)

At the end of my second and final term in Reading I went on a trip around the UK, which finally took me back to Hastings once again. In the evening of 8th April 1992 I boarded a train from London to Hastings (£8.45) where I spent a few more days with Michael and Rosemary. On Saturday 11th April I went back to London for the day to visit a friend and take another chance at getting theatre tickets for "The Phantom of the Opera"


After another visit to Reading in June 1992, I also stopped in Hastings during my next UK trip in November 1992. After arriving in London Heathrow on Saturday, 31st October, I continued by train to Hastings where I stayed with Michael and Rosemary once again. After church on Sunday we visited Pevensey Castle, Eastbourne and Beachy Head. On Tuesday we went to Bexhill. On Wednesday morning I took a train to London where I did some sightseeing and in the afternoon I continued to Reading where I spent another few days.

Rochester

 

 

 

 

 

Rochester

Bexhill
Bexhill

Bexhill
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                Bexhill

 
In January 1993 I went to France for an internship in Amiens. At the end of my stay, on Friday, 19th February, I took a train from Amiens to Dover/Folkestone. Upon arrival I was met by Michael and Rosemary and we visited Dover (Dover Goal and Maison Dieu) and the Chunnel Exhibition in Folkestone. Then we drove to Hastings before I travelled on to Edinburgh for an aikido weekend course with the Reading aikido club a few days later. Before I returned home to Germany on 3rd March, I spent a final night in Hastings.

I came back to the UK in the summer of 1993 for Aikido Summer School in Durham. This time I had brought my friend Corinna and we also visited our friends in Hastings at the end of our stay. On Saturday, 12th August, which was my birthday, we took a train to Hastings where we stayed with Michael and Rosemary for a couple of nights.

 

Katja, Hastings
In Hastings


From October 1995 my boyfriend at that time Christian was spending a year at Birmingham University and I visited him a few times. On Friday evening 13th October we took a train to Hastings (Saver Return for £40.00) to visit Michael and Rosemary. On the Saturday we went to a lecture about Hastings in the afternoon and to a Bonfire Procession in the evening. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant. On Sunday we went to the Methodist church service before I had to catch my flight back home later that day.

From Wednesday, 8th April 1998, until Easter Monday I went to Hastings with my parents and my future husband Volker  to visit Michael and Rosemary. We went by car and for the first time we travelled through the Channel Tunnel (Chunnel). The journey under the sea lasted 35 minutes and we arrived in Hastings on Wednesday evening. As Michael is an MP now we went to London on Thursday so he could show us the Houses of Parliament.
On Good Friday we went for a walk in the countryside (Herstmonceux Castle) with some friends of Michael and Rosemary's. The ground was very muddy but nevertheless we had fun. We stopped at a pub for lunch. In the late afternoon we drove to Eastbourne and strolled along the pier. On Saturday we did some shopping in Hastings and we visited the historic centre of Rye in the afternoon. In the evening we went to an Indian restaurant. On Easter Sunday Rosemary cooked a traditional English lunch but with roast turkey instead of beef as well as roast potatoes and Yorkshire Pudding. In the afternoon we went into the countryside again where we visited Charleston Farmhouse, the country home of the Bloomsbury Group of writers and painters to which belonged Virginia Woolf. We also saw the Long Man of Wilmington, a chalk figure cut into the slope of a hill. On Monday morning the 13th we had to say good-bye again and travelled back home.

Next time we were in London was almost 10 years later. In August 2007 we took the opportunity to stay at Michael and Rosemary's London flat for a long weekend. We still need to go back to Hastings...

Rye
Rye

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