Having not done any research at all for this trip, we wandered aimlessly down the beach towards the Stade and found ourselves climbing up East Hill. The other hill in Hastings is called West Hill, and we would climb that later.
East Hill
A ten-minute stepped climb took us to the top of the hill, on which an ice-cream van was perched, waiting. We didn't know how it got there. There weren't any roads as far as we could tell. It felt a little unreal, helped somewhat by the overcast sky (apart from which the weather was actually quite pleasant).
The walk was nice but unremarkable, although I was surprised by the patches of bluebells still in bloom. We went back down for lunch and some ice-cream. A woman jumped ahead of us just when we got to the front of the queue. B tried stopping her but the woman said, "I was here first," when she obviously wasn't.
B wanted to walk away in protest but I said, "why don't I get my ice-cream and you can have some of it?" Greed won of course.
West Hill
We lazed a little by the Hastings beachfront for a bit of sun. When it started to get chilly we went up to West Hill. Whereas East Hill was full of activity - walkers, a barbecue party, kids running around - West Hill was more tranquil. There were people, but they were mostly just sitting on the grass or rocks enjoying the view.
We chose a spot to sit. There was plenty of space on the hill, but a group of teenagers came and sat right next to us, talking about boy-girl issues, other people they know and generally things that teens talk about. Some of them were going to watch the re-enactment at Battle the next day. Unfortunately, we were here for just a day.
After a while, we got tired of the involuntary eavesdropping and as it was getting dark, decided to head for the train station.
