To Fishbourne for two nights at the Woolpack Inn, a 1930s pub with a block of bedrooms at the back of its car park. Before dinner we had a walk down to the Mill Pond and harbour,but the harbour is now silted up and is a wetland nature reserve.Dinner was a beer battered cod, chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce. Their wine list would delight Gordon Ramsey, being very short, with just three whites, SB, PG and Chardonnay.
We had the first, which was Sol del Oro, a bulk shipped Chilean Sauvignon Blanc, bottled in Germany, which was less worse than expected. It showed some liveliness and character, and by goodness, we needed it.
On Friday we walked 10 minutes to the Roman Palace - or the remains of its North Wing. It was the largest Roman building north of the Alps, yet it wasn’t clear for whom it was built or its location. They had to build long fresh water channels to it as there was no source of water at its location.
All that was left were the magnificent huge mosaic floors, and a garden of boxwood patterns and a kitchen garden planted with herbs and vegetables cultivated by the Romans and some imported by them to Britain.
Afterwards we caught a bus the short distance to Chichester for a teacake lunch, walk along the city walls and a visit to the museum.
Statue of George Murray with Nelson, situated by the site of Murray's home.
George Murray was born in Chichester in 1759 and joined the Royal Navy when he was 11. Rising swiftly through the ranks he first served under Admiral Nelson in 1801 and the two became close friends. Murray was Nelson's Captain of the Fleet but had to miss the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 as he was sorting out the estate of his late father-in-law. Nelson didn't appoint another Captain of the Fleet, saying "Murray or none".
George Murray became Mayor of Chichester in 1815, the year he was knighted, and died in the city in 1819.
Then we bussed back to the Woolpack, which conveniently has a stop right outside.
The pub was packed for its popular Friday carvery. The website says the carvery has ‘Free Range Sussex Pork, New Forest Free Range Beef, Butterfly Turkey Crown and Free Range Sussex Gammon’, but the beef we’d set our hearts on was a no show.
Of the three reds on the wine menu we chose Malbec over an Italian Merlot and Australian Shiraz with a dodgy name.
La Vaca Gorda translates to ‘The Fat Cow’, but with a bow tie and pin striped suit the ‘cow’ looks masculine. Perhaps a member of the trans community, but with a wimpish 12.5% abv I could have done with a bit more bull!
Of the three reds on the wine menu we chose Malbec over the Italian Merlot and Australian Shiraz with a dodgy name.
La Vaca Gorda translates to ‘The Fat Cow’, but with a bow tie and pin striped suit the ‘cow’ looks masculine. Perhaps a member of the trans community, but with a wimpish 12.5% abv I could have done with a bit more bull!
