Visited the castle, where the oddly shaped & sloped grounds around had been attractively furnished with beds of flowers, mostly circular, of diameter between two and three metres. Somebody had put a lot of time and trouble into them and we caught them at their spring peak. The castle itself seemed to have been upgraded a bit since we were last there and we were able to climb up the keep, not as impressive as that at, for example, Rochester, but still impressive. Intrigued that the robber baron, not many generations off being a Viking, who built it, thought it worth his while, or at least proper, to include a chapel and an ante-chapel, this in a house which did not run to many living rooms at all. Clearly a rather different outlook to our own.
The viewing platform had been furnished with a wrought iron cage which kept my vertigo at bay (enclosure seems to be the trick. Open platforms bad), which allowed me to appreciate what a smart move the Conqueror had made in having one of his chaps put the castle here. Quite an eminence with a fine view of surrounding countryside from the top and fully in control of any traffic on or over the River Wey below and which can be inferred by the line of trees behind the car park in the top row cage square, second from the right, and which runs, left to right on a course more or less parallel to the cage bar below it.
Wandered around a bit, not being able to decide what sort of lunch that we wanted, and wandered into Guildford House, reputed a 'gem' by the Timewatch Heritage team. Exhibition of photographs in the upper regions, local photographic society as we get at Bourne Hall, but of a rather higher standard. Some of the captions even included remarks about focus and film and I would think that few of the photographs had been taken with a telephone. Gallery Café in the lower regions where we decided to take lunch. BH happy enough with what she chose, but I elected for something called lentil & bacon soup and an unadorned ham sandwich. Soup eatable, but looked and tasted if it was partly composed of the minestrone from the day before, possibly from a tin. Sandwich was unadorned and was eatable, but the white bread was a little stale and the pink ham came from one of those shrink wrapped cylinders. Tourist information in the middle where we learned that Sainbury's had not moved, although we might have been confused by a refurb. and that the Sainsbury's instore bakery was possibly the final blow for the fine bakery - The Boulangerie - which had been next door, a place which despite its name used to sell the finest large white bloomers to be had in Surrey. Maybe if they had not overreached themselves - as it turned out - by opening branches round and about they might have survived. The only relic left is a tea shop, 'The Tudor Lounge', above what used to be the bakery. Next time we shall have to visit it.
On to pay our respects to what used to the Thorpe's bookshop in what had been the Constitutional Hall, and still labelled such. The bookshop where we bought our ex Guildford Grammar School 1888 edition of the Oxford Dictionary, a set of books which have given us much pleasure over the 20 years or so that we have owned them. Thorpe's long gone, but the hole was to some extent filled by a quite decently stocked Oxfam Bookshop where I was able to buy a copy of Admiral Bacon's (more properly, Admiral Sir Reginald Hugh Spencer Bacon, KCB, KCVO, DSO (1863–1947)) two volume book on the Dover Patrol, a book which I come across from time to time but have never bought before. So far so good and I shall report back further in due course.
And so, back down North Street to the railway station and home, taking in an interesting rug emporium on the way, a place we shall probably return to. See http://www.rugmart.co.uk/.
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