HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing Paul and Lizzy again
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Saying goodbye to Paps and Em
WORD OF THE DAY: I love train travel……
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 90km
I was leaving London today. I had an amazing 8 nights in this city that I would have to call one of my favorites. There is always things to see, things to do and to be able to stay with friends on this trip just made it all that more enjoyable.
I hadn’t packed yet. I was going to do it last night but spent my last night having a great dinner with the Addleton’s and we watched another episode of our Rwanda Gorilla friends before heading to bed at 11pm. I figured the packing could wait till this morning. I have to get back into a routine and a place where things live, I am still to do this, but need to give myself a break as it is the only second pack with the new bag. With me also having bought 3 new shirts, a dress and a wet jacket I also had Sharon’s jumper and wet jacket that she left in Ireland and had it posted to Helen’s place where I will in turn bring it with me to Scotland after the weekend. Not that Shaz jacket took up a lot of room, but I just couldn’t fit everything in properly and ended up carrying a plastic bag with stuff that wouldn’t go and figured I will just sort it all out at P&L’s when I leave there on Monday. So thank goodness I was only on train travel today as I think the pack I did this morning was the worst pack I have done on my entire Odyssey. After leaving their place I had a thought that I probably could have left some clothes with them and collected them at Christmas time as I had bought some ‘London’ clothes in the scenario we went and did some activities that required I be wearing more than cargos and t-shirts. Oh well I only have 4 more flights and I can and will offload some clothes to Shelly and she can take some home with her to Brisbane when I see them in Phuket.
My train was at 10am and with me being the ‘snaffu’ type wanted to leave home for the 10 minute drive at 9.15am. Paps thought this was laughable so we settled on 9.30am as a compromise and left at 9.35am. I had pre-booked these tickets on a credit card that I actually had on me and not in Australia (after my last debacle yesterday), so when we got to the station I just had to insert my MasterCard in the ticket machine, type in my reservation number and out spat my tickets-awesome. Paps and Em were able to wait on the platform with me as my train rolled in 2 minutes late we got a last photo op, some hugs and kisses and before I knew it the doors were closing and a last wave as the train pulled out of the station. I am going to miss them so much. They were awesome to me and I am hoping that I will see them over Christmas, well more over New Year’s Eve as they will be at Ems pears place in Scotland, so I will hopefully catch the train up after Paul and Lizzy's wedding and spend New Year’s Eve with them. So with this plan loosely formed it made me feel a little better that I would be seeing them in 4 months.
I had to change trains at East Croydon which was 20 minutes away and then I was on a fast/direct train to Brighton arriving in at 11am. My first train was 3 minutes late, but I had a 12 minute connection in East Croydon and that train wasn’t that busy so I just dumped my backpack(s) on the chair with my handbag and now my dang plastic bag till I had to exit the train. I had a platform change in East Croydon and even had a spare 9 minutes up my sleeve. The only problem was when my Brighton train arrived I didn’t realize that I was the last stop with the train coming from London and being a Friday it was busy and there were no luggage racks in any of the carriages. There was another person who had a big bag standing at the doorway and with this now express to Brighton I left my bag near the doors and found a seat for the 40 minute journey and I kept glancing back during the journey to make sure the 2 bags were still there.
Brighton train station is beautiful and once I dragged my backpacks off the train and loaded up Liz was quick to spot me as I came through the turnstile. Both Paul and Liz had taken Friday off work and we had the day to just catch up. I met P&L on my South America trip where they did a 107 portion of the trip from Lima to Rio and they were amazing friends to me and it was great that we were catching up again, especially now as they got engaged upon their return from the trip and are having a winter wedding in December to which I have been invited to and have already accepted and booked the trip back for it. I hope it wasn’t a dummy invite as I have booked flights already!!! Sorry guys…… Paul was waiting out in the car and with a quick hug and my bag in the back seat with me we were off to their beachfront apartment that would be my home for the next 3 nights.
Brighton is on the south coast of Great Britain. The ancient settlement of Brighthelmstone dates from before Doomsday Book (1086), but it emerged as a health resort featuring sea bathing during the 18th century and became a destination for day-trippers from London after the arrival of the railway in 1841. Brighton experienced rapid population growth, reaching a peak of over 160,000 by 1961. In the Doomsday Book, Brighton was called Bristelmestune and a rent of 4,000herring was established. In June 1514 Brighthelmstone was burnt to the ground by French raiders during a war between England and France. Only part of the St Nicholas Church and the street pattern of the area now known as "The Lanes" survived. The first drawing of Brighthelmstone was made in 1545 and depicts what is believed to be the raid of 1514. During the 1740s and 1750s, Dr Richard Russell of Lewes began prescribing seawater at Brighton. From 1780, development of the Georgian terraces had started and the fishing village became the fashionable resort of Brighton. Growth of the town was further encouraged by the patronage of the Prince Regent (later King George IV) after his first visit in 1783. He spent much of his leisure time in the town and constructed the Royal Pavilion during the early part of his Regency. The arrival of the London and Brighton Railway in 1841 brought Brighton within the reach of day-trippers from London and population growth from around 7,000 in 1801 to over 120,000 by 1901. The Victorian era saw the building of many major attractions including the Grand Hotel (1864), the West Pier (1866) and the Palace Pier (1899). There are over 300 pubs in the town and has about 400 restaurants, more per head than anywhere else outside London. A wide range of cuisines is available, with a particular emphasis on vegetarianism.
Just from my drive around it looked like a beautiful city and most of the Georgian buildings have been restored to their former glory and look beautiful with large columns and iron wrought stoops these places are magnificent. Fancy living in one of these-it would be incredible. P&L live seriously on the beach front with Hove Lawns at the front of their apartment building and then the esplanade and then the beach all in that order and to top it all off they are located on the 5th floor and I had a beach view from my bedroom. To top this all off was a gorgeous sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. So after dropping my bags off we formed the plan to have lunch seaside, take a ride on the Hop ON Hop Off bus to give me a show of the whole city and then a walk on the Palace Pier to top of the day. This was a great plan and put it into action.
So we walked the Hove Lawns, along the Promenade making our way towards the famous Brighton Pier. The further along the promenade we got the busier the crowds got, so we decided to stop and eat at one of the small bar café’s that line Brighton Beach, especially the closer you get to the pier. I have to say the fish was amazing and washed down with a jug of Sangria shared between Lizzy and I it was an incredible day for a reunion. The weather was postcard perfect, the sun was high in the sky, not a cloud to be seen and with good company what else could one ask for on a Friday afternoon. After lunch we continued to walk the promenade to the busiest section of the beach where there are food stalls, buskers, bike riders, beach go-ers and mime acts all making the most of this glorious weather. I couldn’t believe I was still in the UK; I really was mesmerized by the location and just how beautiful it is here. I could have been somewhere in Spain or on a beach in Nice. It was amazing. Now I know it is not like this all year round and I am lucky that I will get to see the ‘winter’ that Brighton has to offer when I come back in December for Liz and Paul’s wedding. I am sure it still has charm and will be a totally different feel and I am looking forward to seeing this city in winter. It is like New York, I would love to see that city in winter, and I’ll just add it to my dwindling travel list. I will need something to see in my older years.
So we decided to jump on the Hop on Hop off bus that just about any major city has these days and it is nice to be able to do these things with people who live in their own city and are doing these type of things for the first time as well. It was 10GBP and we just wanted to do the 1 hour loop without getting off and with the breeze in our hair and the sun on our face it was a great was to see the pretty town of Brighton. It has so much to offer here and it would definitely be a place I would come back to and spend some more relaxing time here. So the sights we saw on the bus included us departing from the Brighton Marine Palace and Pier (long known as the Palace Pier) which opened in 1899. It features a funfair, restaurants and arcade halls. The Royal Pavilion which is a former royal palace built as a home for the Prince Regent during the early 19th century and is notable for its Indo-Saracenic architecture and Oriental interior. The West Pier was built in 1866 and is one of only two Grade I listed piers in the United Kingdom. It has been closed since 1975. For some time it was under consideration for restoration, but two fires in 2003, and other setbacks, led to these plans being abandoned. Plans for a new landmark in its place – the i360, a 183 m (600 ft) observation tower designed by London Eye architects Marks Barfield – were announced in June 2006. Plans were approved by the council on 11 October 2006. As of early 2009, construction had yet to begin. Brighton clock tower, built in 1888 for Queen Victoria's jubilee, stands at the intersection of Brighton's busiest thoroughfares. Created in 1883, Volk's Electric Railway runs along the inland edge of the beach from Brighton Pier to Black Rock and Brighton Marina. It is the world's oldest operating electric railway. The Grand Hotel was built in 1864 and the scene of the 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing finishing back at The Brighton Wheel which opened with some controversy, directly north east of the Brighton Marine Palace and Pier in October 2011.
Our last stop for the afternoon was The Brighton Marine Palace and Pier which is a pleasure pier. It is generally known as the Palace Pier for short, but has been informally renamed Brighton Pier since 2000 by its owners, the Noble Organization, in an attempt to suggest that it is Brighton's only pier. The West Pier was its rival but was closed in 1975 and was subsequently severely damaged by fires and storms, with the remaining iron structure being partially demolished in 2010. History Work began on the Palace Pier in 1891, the inaugural ceremony for laying of the first pile was held on 7 November 1891. The pier opened in May 1899 after costing a record £27,000 to build. This was Brighton's third pier. A condition to be met by its builders, in exchange for permission to build, was that the first, The Royal Suspension Chain Pier of 1823, which had fallen into a state of disrepair, was to be demolished. They were saved this task by a storm which largely destroyed the Chain Pier for them anyway. A concert hall opened two years later, and by 1911 this had become a theatre. During World War II the pier was closed and some decking removed as a security precaution. During a storm in 1973, a 70-ton barge moored at the pier's landing stage broke loose and began to damage the pier head, particularly the theatre. Despite fears that the pier would be destroyed, the storm eased and the barge was removed. The damaged theatre was never used again. In 1986 the theatre was removed, on the understanding that it would be replaced. This has not happened, and the present seaward end building looks fairly modern in comparison with the rest of the structure, supporting a domed amusement arcade and several fairground rides, including several thrill rides, children's rides, roller coasters and a log flume. A bomb planted by the IRA near the pier in 1994 was defused by a controlled explosion. The Palace Pier suffered a large fire on 4 February 2003 but the damage was limited and most of the pier was able to reopen the next day. This was a fraught period for Brighton's piers, with much damage occurring to the West Pier (of 1866) shortly before and after this event.
The pier was busy, but not crushingly so and the views you had back towards the beach was amazing. Paul, Liz and I decided to get some fresh cooked sugar doughnuts as they are a bit of a tradition around here and we had just pulled one each out of the paper bag and I had just finished waving mine around in the air for a photo opportunity when before we knew we were set upon by a family of seagulls, okay so they may have not been a family, what about a pack of seagulls? Either way a seagull swooped and ripped the whole donut right out of my hands, serviette and all, Lizzy got ‘attacked’ as well and she decided to drop hers as her seagull came in for a second swoop and Paul had one ‘attack’ him from behind as he flew straight over his head with his seagulls feet running through his hair!!! This all happened in a manner of seconds and as we recovered our composure and got several Oh and Ah’s from passers-by we had to take cover in the Entertainment pavilion to be able to eat the rest of the donuts in peace. Crazy huh, we can’t eat food outside because of the killer seagulls. There are no signs on the pier alerting you to the boldness of these birds and to me they look a little larger than normal ones but then I guess they would when they are consuming donuts all day-the little piggies. We took some comfort when we saw a couple lose their whole tray of fish and chips from the ‘killer’ seagulls as we continues to walk around the pier, they are smart and knocked the whole tray from their hands and then went in for the swoop of the food on the ground. Cheeky buggers. Paul tried his luck at one of the amusement stalls and ended up winning Lizzy and I a small soft toy each. I picked Percy the Pear and Liz got Larry the Lemon. I’m going to keep Percy for my trip and get some photos of him in some of the countries I am travelling to in the next few months and then post them for Liz, Paul and Larry. We had a few beers in one of the pier bars that had a patio overlooking the ocean and just chillaxed for an hour or so before making our way back home. I thought for a micro minute of doing one of the crazy rides they had on the pier but then decided I would be best to just keep my feet on the ground so after a few more photos we made our way back to the apartment for a little rest before thinking about dinner. Dinner was at the local Thai restaurant and I always have to ask myself why I only starting eating Thai a few years ago? I have always been a Chinese fan but I am now starting to enjoy Thai a lot more.
We finished off a great day by watching 2 episodes of Frasier. Liz and Paul and watching the whole series from season 1 I jumped onto where they were at with a beer in the hand and then we were all tucked up in bed by 11pm. What an amazing day and it feels great to see P and L again. Tomorrow we are heading into town for a looksee and then on Sunday we are heading out into the country for a Sunday Roast in a pub before my departure on Monday.
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