dungeness and rye

Today we took a field trip to the cities of Dungeness and Rye. They're typical British towns, so it was a really nice change from the big city. We went for our Brit Life and Cuture class, so I made a few "cultural anthropologist" notes. Here they are!
Dungeness is a really, really small town right on the English Channel. It's almost not even a town – there were probably 20 houses at the most, spaced really far apart and sort of run down. Even though it was sunny, the general feeling was sparse and sort of morose. The beach was a shingle beach, so the entire area was pretty rocky. It's also a nature reserve, so a lot of the vegetation was really wild, and we saw a lot of birds. The English Channel was beautiful there – we could see the white cliffs of Dover from where we were, which was really pretty.
Then we went to Rye, which was quite a bit different. It's a town with about 5,000 residents and dating from before the Norman Conquest. It's the site of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when William the Conquerer invaded England. Rye is the typical English town, with small houses and shops and narrow roads, surrounded by rolling hills and sheep farms. My favorite part was going up to the top of the cathedral, which was. It was on the top of a hill, so you can see the entire town and the surrounding countryside. It was amazing.
Cheers