Rolling Hills, Pastures, and Pretty Towns

Hola! The weather was fantastic today. It was around 40 degrees with a light wind and clear blue skies. Just about perfect. While Vanessa and I were out walking, I actually spend about 1/3 of the walk just wearing a t-shirt and jeans. It felt absolutely fantastic and the scenery was was fantastic as well. When I get around to asking Vanessa to download her pictures again, I will add them to this entry. I will let you know when that happens as well.

Vanessa and I agreed to try and be ready around 7 or 7:15 this morning (really early for a day off). We left the flats at around 7:15 so right on time. We got on the Tube and went to Waterloo station. We bought our rail tickets (£18, totally worth it). Our destination was a town south-southwest of London called Guildford. It's in a county called Surrey. Surrey is known for its rolling hills, pastures, and pretty towns. We saw all of these on our walk. On a side note, people here in the UK call it "walking" instead of hiking. I tend to agree with the statement because a lot of the walks are along bridleways (where horses go) and small country roads. Not the same as a dirt path (which exist here) for the entirety of the hike. Anyway, we caught the train to Guildford and arrived at around 9 or so. I have previously mentioned how much I liked riding the trains here and just looking out the window but I am going to again. Its just very exciting to me to see things go by and know that I am going somewhere I have never been to before.

Back on the subject at hand, our walk started at Guildford and ended at another town called Gomshall. It was 8.4 miles long. We thought we might be a little strapped for time because we had to be at the George Inn in London by 18:00. Also, I want to add that I got this walk from my favorite book called Country Walks Near London Vol. 2. It has step by step directions with distances and very easy to see markers (like, "after 400 metres, you will pass a white house, directly after it, take a left"). The sort of motto of the book is "you can't get lost with this book". I tend to agree. There are 30 walks in the book and I hope to do as many as I can while I'm here. Vanessa was super excited about the whole thing and really eager to come with me and wake at a crazy early hour (by crazy early, I am referring to the fact that we have no job and no class so it is weird to wake up at 6:30). Anyway, the walk started in Guildford. It is a town situated on a river valley so the town kind of sprawls up both sides of the valley with the river cutting it in half. The highest point on one side of the valley is a church of some kind and the highest point on the other side is Guildford Castle which we visited on our way out of town. To get there however, we had to start at the lowest point of the town (the river and climb out of the valley, super inclined roads. The castle (picture 1) was constructed in 1066 but it is mostly torn down now. The Normans built it after the Battle of Hastings as an outpost to keep trouble down since they were occupying. All that is left is one tower that looks like it is about half the height it used to be. You can go to the top but it wasn't open. Around the castle are really spectacular and very well kept up flower gardens (picture 2). All the gardens are on a slant though, one way or another. The grass was just incredibly green and it was really a sight to see.

After visiting the castle, we made our way to Pewley Down. Its the hill at the top of the valley and it has really spectacular views of hills beyond the town. Vanessa said that the townsfolk are very lucky to have this by their town and I agree. The area was a memorial to the people who fought in WWI (picture 3 has memorial and view). We started talking to an older man who was walking along the Down. He told us that he was born here but studied in Canada. He also described some of the stuff you could see with the view. He was really nice and after we parted company, Vanessa wished she had taken a picture with him. We walked down from the Down and along some pastures. The path here was muddy (picture 4) though not as bad as last Thursday. Our next destination was St Martha's-on-the-Hill (picture 5). We had to climb said hill to get to it but it was SOOOO worth it. The views from the church with the gravestones framing the rolling hills and pastures was just beautiful (picture 6). The sun was shining brightly and there were a few clouds but that helped make it even better. This was by far my favorite part of the entire walk.

We continued on walking in between farmlands. That sounds boring but it wasn't. The ground was basically never flat and on top of each little hill thing was a little forest and there were farm houses dispersed throughout the area too. Plus, its friggin England so it for sure wasn't ever boring. While we walked, we talked about stuff and Vanessa made fun of me for loving churches so much (I really do) and I made fun of her for loving dogs and gardens so much (she does). If we could find a church with a garden and a dog park or something, we would really be in business. Our next stop was the small town of Shere. This is called "the prettiest town in Surrey" and I can totally see why. There was a tiny river flowing through the town and small houses with small gardens (Vanessa loved it). There was a church (I loved it) built in 1190. The church, Church of St. James (picture 8) to be exact, had a mildly famous resident once upon a time. In 1329, Christine Carpenter, a nun, locked herself in a cell in the north wall of the church, by the altar and stayed there for three years, getting food through a grating in the outer wall. She came out after the three years for a little bit but soon asked to be put back in! The church was closed when we got there so we couldn't see the actual cell :-( We ate lunch (I had PBJ and fruit, Vanessa had tuna and fruit) along the little river (picture 7) in front of a duck house thing where a bunch of ducks were. It was awesome. It's worth mentioning that a lot of the walk we did today is on the Pilgrim's Way. The path that pilgrims took to get to Canterbury Cathedral where we are going tomorrow. I thought that that was an odd coincidence.

After Shere, we spent most of our time on a muddy, dirt road that went up, and up, and up. I have been on steep hikes (Grand Canyon, Half Dome, etc.) but this was steep too. The uphill lasted almost a half mile too. Crazy. This we spent about a mile walking on the same road (level now) through forest. We had to keep reminding each other that we were in England because it felt so much like walking through the western US or something like that. It was really beautiful. Then we descended the hill and came to Domshall. When we got to Domshall, we both felt like we could walk a little longer (it was only 13:30) but as soon as we got seated on the train and comfortable, we never wanted to move again. We some how made it back to our flats. I read and then left for our meeting at the George Inn.

The George Inn is in Southwark in London and it is where the pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales met before they left for Canterbury Cathedral. The actual Inn where they stayed was destroyed in a fire except for the north wall which is still standing. Each of us researched a character in the Tales and told that person's story. It was fun and some people really got into it. Vanessa told me afterward that she spent the whole time wishing she was still walking in Guildford. Funny thing is, I was doing the same thing. We took the Tube back. At the George Inn, Phil bought us all nachos (ate them at around 7). I got back at 8:30 so I made a quiche. I ate it at 9:30 which was a very strange time to eat dinner, at least it felt that way. I had my now nightly girly tea and here I am.

I had an absolutely fantastic day walking in Surrey with Vanessa and I can't wait to do it again soon. I had thought about going somewhere (like Spain or Germany or what have you) next weekend because it is our first totally free weekend (noon on Wednesday to 9 on Monday, I have nothing) but the deals on all the flights ended today. I waited too long to decide which stinks. On the bright side, if there is decent weather next weekend, we are going to go walking near London again on Thursday and hopefully Friday too. Sorry about the length of the post, I just like describing things in detail and I truly loved this walk.

Take care and have fun everyone!