Tuesday was another stunning day, which worked out well as we went off to Brighton. An hour or so to get there by train. We played Guillotine and I won the two games so we were neck-and-neck. We also shared our seating area with a woman with a dog called Harry. He was very sweet and well behaved.
Pulled into Brighton Station at about 11ish, bought an almond and chocolate croissant and a foccacia from the bread stall outside the station and ate them as we wandered down towards Brighton Pavilion.
Did you know that HRH Prince of Wales is the President of the Fountain Society? We do now, after seeing a plaque.
Brighton Pavilion was going to take about an hour and a half to look around. We had to meet my friend Charlotte for lunch at 1pm so we skipped the Pavilion for now and walked down to the pier.
The beach was very busy, what with the beautiful weather. While the beach was busy, the water was not and we soon found out why. We walked across the pebbles (I don’t know about you but when I think of pebbles I think of small smooth stones. These were more like smooth boulders.) We took off our shoes and ventured into the water.
Absolutely freezing!
No wonder there were only four (insane) people swimming in the water in the whole stretch of beach.
There were small school children at the beach as well, going in convoy down the pebbles to the water’s edge, dipping their feet in, screaming, and then heading back up away from the water.
The whole thing is so different from back home. Maybe if we’d actually gone in up to our necks we would have acclimatised (once everything had gone numb).
We then walked along Brighton Pier, taking photos, chatting, discussing tattoos and dancing along to the 50s music playing over the speakers.
We met Charlotte at the Dorset Street Pub for a quick lunch as she had to catch a train just after 2pm to get up to London. Donna and I finally got to have Pimm’s (we’d been hanging out for it since I got to London).
It was lovely seeing Charlotte again (the last time was April or May this year, and even then only briefly) and we quickly tore through the news, chatting through her and Joe’s life in the UK, Donna’s travels and Glen and my move to Toronto. An hour definitely wasn’t enough but it was definitely worth making time to see each other.
After lunch, Donna and I went to the Pavilion. Again we used a 2-for-1 offer. We picked up an audio guide, pressed the number, stuck it to our head and walked through.
I’d been to the Pavilion with mum when I was seven years old but I can’t really remember more than that. Built for George III as a pleasure palace (not Queen Victoria as I originally thought) it was incredibly opulent and really a feast for the eyes. The dragon chandelier in the banquet rule was impressive. Walked through kitchens, apartments, servant’s quarters and other rooms. I think we’d been in there maybe 45 minutes before Donna sagged. When we reached the music room and could sit down (heaven), she nodded off for a second while listening to the guide. My energy had flagged as well and after that point we only listened intermittently to the guide (which is what I usually do after a point with audio guides). We finished rather poorly and went back out into the sunshine.
We then decided to get icecreams (we’d seen it in the 2-for-1 booklet and walked past it earlier in the day). We both had Peanut Butter and Salted Caramel ice cream, then I had Sour Cherry and Donna had Raspberry and Coconut. Decadent but delicious.
We had off-peak tickets so we thought we had to catch the train outside of the 4:15pm to 7pm window. We managed to arrive back at the train station at 4pm but the next train to London wasn’t until 4:19. Damn! But we asked the ticket guy and he said from Brighton off-peak and peak didn’t matter. YAY!
We caught the train, playing two more games of Guillotine (Donna thrashed me). When we pulled into Clapham Junction we had a moment of thinking that perhaps we should get off there and go straight to Putney but our brains weren’t working so we stayed on to Victoria. Then got the tube to Vauxhall and then an overland which went into Clapham Junction before going on to Putney. We could have saved ourselves a heap of time if only we’d gotten off at Clapham Junction. Oh well.
When we rushed onto the train at Clapham Junction, I was certain the sign said it was going through Putney but while we were on it, Putney didn’t appear on the ticker. Slight panic and the memory of jumping onto a train going to Utrecht (rather than the airport – though it went there eventually) surged. But when we pulled into Clapham Junction it was going to Putney so we were relieved.
Picked up some food from Sainsbury’s, got home, drank Pimm’s in the garden in the evening and later watched some TV. Went to bed way too late but what are you going to do? Wonderful day all told. So great to be in Brighton on such a beautiful day.
Travels with Dan 
What do you say, eh?