Sunday was the London to Brighton vintage car run. Helen and I with Helens mum joining us for a list to Hassocks, met up with the crew at Crawley after a wrong turning off the M25 meant we missed the exit to the Redhill Little Chef. We stooda around with Martin at CVrwayley town square until the car arrived then we went to the local pub for a traditional pint. Unfortunatly Rory could only be with us until Crawley, so it was then my responability to keep up with the vehicle and allow passengers to swap over a get a chance to ride in the 1903 Humberette.
At about 10 miles out of Crawley we swapped over to give Justin a ride, and Gerald joined us in the car. Gerald is a hockey chum of Gilbert, and had also played his part in the team of over 70’s who won the title at the world championships in Cape Town earlier this year. He is also the president of the British Naturalist Association. The weather was perfect for the run the sun was shinning and the leaves were golden as we went over the steep hill where some cars need a tow. At the Pikeham junction we did another swap and Mark joined the car for the final drive into Brighton.
We hurried down to the front where I dropped everyone off near the front then dumped the car in the NCP car park round the corner from the Travel Lodge. When I got back to the front somone had kindly managed to bag a cup of muled wine, another traditional drink for the run.
This year we had taken a chance and booked the Travel Lodge for the night, a bargain at £32.50, the rooms were small but the place was clean, and we had a good nights apart from the noise from the storm that had descending upon the country. After freshening up we met up in the bar and I used Google maps to find and Italian restaurant near by, it is a great service because it summarises the reviews from many review websites and presents the result in a really easily read way. I picked out one that had the best reviews and we used the directions feature to take us to the restaurant.
The place looked really nice although it was on the street where there are lots of takeaways and other restaurants, and where in the past we have had a couple of bad meals. From the outside it promised to be good, it looked clean and newly decorated. We all agreed the place looked good so went in. The menu had some great selections. We had between us Misto Mare (deep fried sea food), Olives/Breads and Bruschetta for starters then Spaghetti a la Vongole, pumpkin risotto, pork in a mushroom cream sauce and the sea bass special. Three of us had dessert Tiramisu and fruit salad, followed by coffee and liquers. The bill came to £40 per head and everyone agreed that the meal was really great and that we should check it out next year.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped of at a pub that did great real ale, as well as loads of different types of tequila!