A Journey to Brighton

Dear Friends,

Please accept my apologies for the delay in posting. What you did know is that we were scheduled to arrive home on Tuesday night, however, what you didn't know is that my sister Carol arrived an hour later from California to spend some time in Florida. Naturally the here and now takes precedent over the past...

But to the past we go, as Carol still sleeps, and for that I'll start at the beginning of our journey to England. Ready by 4PM, unprecedented for me, we waited for Angela to take us to the airport. Waiting became the word of the day as it turned out. Bruce took this photo of me to kill time!

Arriving at our gate by 5:30, while gazing out the window at our plane, Bruce, seasoned traveler that he is,  pronounced trouble might lie ahead. He was right, of course; as it turns out, our plane hit a large bird during the previous flight. Following much measuring, cleaning off of blood, picture taking, and commiserating with Delta headquarter,s the plane was deemed not safe to fly. In the meantime, whilst all this was taking place, Bruce got on the phone with Delta, and to make a long story short, we got on the next plane, scheduled to leave at 7:30. Sadly, we lost our first class seats which made him none too happy as he used loads of miles to secure that status. Adding insult to injury, we were seated in row 10, with just the open curtain separating us from first class service!

So, the end result was after a delayed take off we arrived in Atlanta with only about twenty minutes before boarding the next flight. I nearly forgot to get our TravelEx card because of the short time span. That card is a story unto itself, but in the interest of reader's attention span, I won't go into that.

We made it, seats 3 and 4! Both of us slept for bits and pieces between extended meal services. Please don't take this as boasting, because it is not intended as such, but I will tell you, if you have to fly overnight, it is mighty nice to be able to lay your seat all the way flat with a regular bed pillow!

The sight of Matthew, after a short time in Customs, was very welcome indeed. And so began our travels on foot, train, bus, underground, escalators, and stairs-- oh my, the stairs!

Taking the Picadilly line into London, Matt is showing Bruce the ropes on the Tube map.

And here we are--Victoria Station, a busy, busy place if ever there was one. By now it was early afternoon, so I can't imagine what it's like at rush hour!

What a nice son to drag his Mom's bag! Although we've visited London twice without Matt's help, it sure takes a lot of the stress out of things with a guide. He's checking the board for the next train to Brighton, which is only about a 45 minute train journey from London.

Taking a little nap on that train, I saw very little of the scenery to tell you about, but I can show you how nice the station is there.

Here's a little entry from Wikipedia about the history of Brighton:

Brighton was a sleepy little fishing village, then known as Brighthelmstone, until Dr Richard Russell of Lewes began to prescribe the use of seawater for his patients. He advocated the drinking of seawater and sea-bathing in 1750. In 1753 he erected a large house near the beach for himself and for his patients. A further factor in Brighton's growth came in the early 19th Century when the Prince of Wales built the Royal Pavilion, an extravagant Regency building designed by John Nash. But it was only with the development of the railways, around 1840, that Brighton truly started to boom

Thus began the making of Brighton as a seaside attraction.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Coming out of the hustle and bustle of the train station, we took a taxi to our flat for the three day stay.

Good thing it had this cool mosaic as a landmark because with attached housing it is easy to walk right past your destination. Because it is rare to find two beds in a hotel room, we used "airbnb" to book a two bedroom flat which worked beautifully. A slight drawback though--five flights up on pretty narrow stairs to get to said flat, but other than that, it was perfect. This is the small, colorful, main room, with a view into the bedroom Matt used.

Once settled, I took a walk down to the sea which I'll illustrate with photos below. Having heard of the English Channel most of my life, it was quite thrilling to see it in person.

What you do is take stairs down to one level below where I'm standing in the above photo, to the next one with shops and a promenade.

 I was crazy for the color of all the ironwork as well as the fantastic lights!

Now I'm on level two, with another set of steps down to the road along the sea.

The photo above makes clear what I pitifully tried to say in words!

Although I'd read it was a pebble beach, the writer's idea of pebbles is not quite the same as mine. I was surprised at how large and dense the rocky beach was--hard to walk on too.

It didn't seem to bother folks at all though:

The earliest attraction in Brighton is the long pier with entertainment, shops, games, and rides which I'll tell you about in another post. Here's a look from below:

To the right of the photo is a large sea wall, or so I think that is what it is.

The ironwork is grand and lovely, especially as mentioned above, painted such a lovely shade of green. Behind all the arches is a wide promenade, or so I'm calling it, imagining the fashionable folks visiting from London, strolling along during the late 1800's.

Trudging up the stairs to join Bruce and Matt, we next made our way just down the street for dinner at a place serving burgers for 3 pounds, which turned out to be super delicious.

Neighbourhood had some super funky decor:

If you thought we might be worn out by now, you thought right! Heading back to the flat, we stopped at a supermarket to buy a few breakfast provisions. We are definitely in England:

Through the narrow streets you can't help but notice the Brighton Wheel, the latest seaside attraction.

You don't have to guess what we did next do you? A bed never felt so good.....

Tomorrow I'll tour you around Brighton, a charming town by the sea.