Day 7- Happy and (slightly) hammered in Eastbourne!

Another 3am wake up!! Oh this must be the last time surely for both of us?! Up and off to Rye and Dungeness at 8am today- the road in Gillingham ws pretty congested with school kids being transported but we got on the M20 ok, still a little stressful on those huge roundabouts with all the lanes, but we were off with a squeal of tyres-haha!

About an hour into it we turned off into...heaven- what are normal roads to us. We drove to the quaint village of Rye

Our work colleague Dave had very kindly arranged a tour of the Dungeness Power Station with his ex- colleague (also a Dave). Talk about British hospitality- he had made all the very high level arrangements it takes to visit a nuclear site and we were able to go right into Dungeness B station. This was also his 1 day off that he took out to show us round- a really nice guy.

After being kitted out, Dave took us through the plant where we able to view the nuclear reactors- not an opportunity that comes along every day. After a good couple of hours and a visit to the control room, we returned to Dave and Lyn's house for a lovely lunch- exactly what I needed after having a rather unhappy tummy since yesterday. Then we left Rye- wish we had time to look through the town as it looks fantastic, but we needed to get on to Eastbourne where we planned to spend the night.

That drive should have been an hour however the Graeme Collis tour dept took us along the 'coastal' road- haha it was a - at times 5mph tiny little road which resembled a NZ driveway! There were quaint little changing sheds along the beach however and worth looking at along the way which made for an interesting detour.

Arrived in Eastbourne and had a look around at hotels- there are a fantastic array of traditional huge ?victorian style hotels along the seafront. Completely randomly, we came across the Landsdowne hotel- a gorgeous old Best Western, which I had tried to book online sometime ago, and the website would not work, so I had left it- and we end up standing in front of it accidentally! The afternoon manager gave us a good discount as it was 4.30pm and we got a choice of rooms. Choose one on the top floor with 4 huge windows that open onto a balcony, over looking the sea.

We got settled then out in the rather brisk cool air for a walk- the rain has finally stopped and we walked along the seafront which has a pier exactly like its more famous sister down the road- Brighton. A hundred photos later playing with the new camera! and we stumbled across a great looking pub which was full with theatre goers (there are 3 here the barman told us) where we had 2 beers each and a meal- my first English mushy peas- Yum!Had a great hour or so then staggered back to the hotel- holy! should definitely eat before 3pm I think! Now we are relaxing in this huge room- Graeme residing in a wing back chair, like he is the lord of the manor!