In the UK.

We arrived in the UK yesterday morning after taking two Westjet flights.  Cranbrook to Calgary and then on to Gatwick.  This was our first time on Westjet’s international flights.  It was OK, nothing special.  There are no free services, movies or meals. Very basic.

After deplaning in the North Terminal we had a good long walk to the immigration area.  Immigration was straight forward and friendly. Customs was very simple. We followed the ‘nothing to declare’ signs straight out into the terminal.     In order to take the train from the airport we had to take the shuttle train to the South Terminal.   It was easy to purchase train tickets from the row of ticket machines.  We used a credit card rather than deal with unfamiliar cash.

The signage at the train station was a bit lacking.   It was not easy to find the correct platform for the train to Balcombe. Eventually, after asking a few people, we found our way to platform 7 and got on the correct train, making sure to get in a coach near the middle of the train.  Balcombe has a short platform and the train overhangs either end when stopped.

Balcombe is a small village 10k south of Gatwick. We found an Airbnb suite in an old, now closed, pub across the road from the station.   The suite is very nice. It is an easy walk from the bnb to the centre of the village where there are a couple of stores and a pub. We are staying here for a couple nights to acclimatize to the time change.

Our rented apartment on London Rd,  Balcombe 

The pub

The pub is interesting.  It is a community owned pub.  Apparently it was going to close when someone came up with the idea of a community pub.  There are 300 shareholders. The owner of the bnb is the wine supplier.  Last night we ate at the pub.  The food and wine was very nice.



Yesterday, we took the train the Hayward’s Heath, a market town 6 kilometres toward the coast.  There we set up our phones on a 30 day plan.   For 20 pounds, less than. $30 C.  We have virtually unlimited local calls, texts and 8gb of data.  The plan is valid for all of the EU and Croatia.


Today we took the train to Brighton. Being a sunny Saturday, the train was full of people going to the beach for the day.   Brighton is pretty interesting.  It is  touristy and it is pretty tacky but everyone seems to be having fun and that makes for an enjoyable experience. We found a friendly bar / restaurant on the beach with good beer and cider as well as a big fat greasy bacon, cheese burger. Great people watching!

Mid afternoon we took the train back to Balcombe and went on a walk through field and glen to a small lake. The countryside here is interlaced with a network of public walkways.  We passed through farmers fields, woodlands and even around the boundary of a cricket field, while play continued.  On the way back we stopped at the village grocery store for some cheese, fruit and a bottle of Pino Gris for supper.

Tomorrow we have a flight to Munich and then a train to Passau.  We will overnight in Passau and board the barge (river cruise boat) in the afternoon for our week long bike and barge trip to Vienna and back.

,l