Blue skies in Brighton

On Thursday we headed out to Brighton for the day to celebrate freedom before Pat starts working fulltime again. It’s a pretty quick and easy day trip & a nice breath of fresh air after a few weeks in London. There are several trains that leave from different stations around London. We took the one from St. Pancras which was about half an hour longer than the one from Victoria, but 16 pounds cheaper. We had a bit of a slow start, and then opted to wait at St. Pancras for the first off-peak train (again, saved a few dinero there.) When we arrived in Brighton at 11 the skies were bright blue and the sun was shining.

Sailboats on the beach

 

I had been warned by a few people that it gets pretty windy in Brighton so to bundle up – boy did we luck out. It must have hit above 20 degrees by lunchtime. There were kids playing in the splashpads and people sunbathing. On October 30. I think this is what climate change looks like and it scares me quite frankly, but at least we got to enjoy the nice day...

 

We mainly just wandered up and down the boardwalk along the beach. The beach itself is pebbles so it’s not that easy to walk on but there’s a paved path or boardwalk along the side. Brighton seems to have a pretty thriving art scene so the boardwalk was lined with funky art galleries filled with everything from photography to water colours to tourist knickknacks, it was a super cool mix & great for wandering! We eventually found a place for lunch, Lucky Beach, that claimed it made one of the “UK’s top 3 burgers.” Pat's burger looked like that claim may not be entirely exaggerated & my calamari was fresh and delicious.

 

Eating outdoors on October 30!

After lunch we checked out Brighton Pier. It is classic 1950’s entertainment with arcades, rides, ice cream stands, and nostalgia. It was also PACKED with families – we had forgotten it was a school break this week for British kids so there were children everywhereeeee. Which is fine. I kept my cool.

 

Coronation Street-themed arcade games.

Brighton Pier at sunset - you can kind of see the roller coasters at the far end! it's huge!

After refusing to go on any rides with Pat (I’m a bit of a Debbie Downer when it comes to spinning around in circles), we headed inland to find the Royal Pavilion. It was very pretty with nice gardens but we are kind of museumed-out at the moment – plus the entry into the pavilion itself was $20 each – so we took a quick look around and then headed up to Queen’s Park. I imagine that San Francisco and Brighton are very similar: steep little streets with cute coloured rowhouses lining the streets. It was a good workout to get up to Queen’s Park and we saw a little more of Brighton than you get down on the touristy Pier.

 

$20 entrance fee per person = only exterior shots

the Brighton Eye

 

At this point the sun was starting to set (it was 4 pm. It gets dark so early here.) so we headed back down to the beach to watch it dip below the horizon.

 

We stopped for a quick bite at a delicious vegetarian restaurant, Food for Friends (I know! I too did not realize that dinner could exist without meat.) I had a grilled halloumi, mango, and avocado salad while Pat had a little tasting platter of three appetizers. The British are obsessed with halloumi and I am 100% onboard with it.

Absolutely need to recreate this salad. Also need to work on food pics.

We headed back to London after dinner and were able to watch Pat's sister's graduation ceremony during the trip back! Internet is magical.

We are off to Lisbon in a few weeks but would like to fit in a few more "local" trips before Christmas as the trains are super easy and efficient to get around. Cambridge and Manchester are on my current hit-list. My friend Jill just left after staying with us in London for the weekend. I will try to put together a post with the touristy things we managed to check off our list this weekend during her visit, aka #deathbyclottedcream (Jill's hashtag for afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason.)

Ciao for now.