Last week we went on a group trip to Hastings. Hastings is famous as the location for the fist battle of the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror landed near here so we’re excited about the rich history of this area. In actual fact, however, the battle of Hastings occurred about seven or eight miles north of Hastings, in a place called Battle. So this church trip to Hastings was really fun because about 50 people were there– a bunch of families and children and people of all ages.

We got to the bus at the last second, at 9am, and found the last seats on the bus at the back of the second level. Everyone noticed that Felipe was wearing shorts since they all had long trousers, hiking boots, and rain gear on. Everyone is all bundled up and then here we were the Americans: Felipe in his shorts and me in my flip-flops. The bus trip was was fun–the kids got to sit in the front row of the double-decker and see everything from high up. While the kids were up front Felipe was reading and sharing from this thick, old English history book he brought. He was so excited thinking about going back to the site of the battle Hastings.

Hasting is a seaside town that’s become mainly a fishing village. It’s really touristy when the weather’s nice so right on the coast they have a miniature golf course, a big playground for kids, a little recreated fishing village, and trampolines that you could just pay to jump on, among other things. We went for a ride on a miniature train that had only one stop; our daughter really enjoyed that. Hastings also has a smallish aquarium and we took all the kids there. They had all kinds of fish, but the main attraction was an octopus. A member of staff gave a really good talk on the octopus and gave us interesting details about its feeding habits. There was a large open pool with a bunch of fish and stingrays that were coming up above the water to say “hi” to people. Of course every Seaquarium has the Finding Nemo fish so they had Clown fish and Marlin fish; that was nice because she recognized them from the movie.

The highlight of the trip, however was that we had the best fish and chips that we’ve ever had! The group leader had pre-arranged for a large order of fish and chips from a fish and chip shop that was off the coast. Apparently, near the coast they just give you the thinnest fish that they’re not going to sell raw in the open market. So in order to overcome the location advantage that fish shops on the coast have, more in-land shops use better fish. Our fish was fresh, large white fish with nice crispy chips. It was a massive meal! A lot of people couldn’t finish it. To top it all off it was a beautiful day.

We met back in the bus around 4 o’clock, though Felipe had to physically push me, modestly pregnant, up the hill the bus was on. It was so hot in the bus we felt that finally we were the ones prepared! Everyone else was taking off their sweaters and they were all very, very hot. But we were comfortable you dressed for the beach! Overall we liked Hastings, but the trip was worth it just to spend some time with our church family.