Folkestone to Brighton

Britain:  Folkestone to Brighton

A couple of images from Paris.

Many statues of woman warriors around the train station Gare du Nord

 

Paris Metro

Chunnel Load, not pretty but efficient

Folkestone: True English breakfast was buffet in this case. The room had an institutional feel to it. Everything was luke warm. Not the best, so we get our rental car and head along the coast to Brighton on the country roads. Pretty villages along the way but we couldn’t see much of the seaside due to large berms along it. The berms make it safer for villages from storms and ease up the wind off the ocean.

Get to Brighton and find the hotel no problem but there is no parking at the hotel, which I knew ahead. I walked the area to find a parking garage, asked about four people how to drive there and got conflicting advice. So we drove around and finally found it. No parking garage, just street parking which no one mentioned. Hotel is nice enough but they nickle and dime, didn’t get that feeling from the “sister” hotel we stayed at in Folkestone. Brighton hotel is right next to the pier and central. It needs work, seems this chain of hotels keeps buying more hotels but not keeping the ones they have in good shape.

Had an excellent curry dinner at a small restaurant on what we figure is high street. Back to the hotel and enjoy looking at the lit pier.  It is an arcade with rides and fair food.

Next day in Brighton and we walk to the Bella Café for a hot breakfast, cheaper too than the hotel. 

Then on to Brighton Pavillion which George IV built. It is fabulous! Beautiful inside and out. He had two brothers William and Clarence, William inherited and had no children so Clarence’s daughter inherited who was Victoria. Indian on the outside, Chinese on the inside although nothing is really authentic because George had never been to either place.

The walls, ceilings are absolutely beautiful, painted, sculptures attached to chandeliers, very ornate. Much colour is used and the dining hall is magnificant . The chandeliers are beautiful in their colour and the domes above painted elaborately with objects, dining room for example, leaves of a palm tree.

George IV entertained lavishly with dinners starting at 6:00 pm and lasting until midnight or longer. The diining table was huge and elaborately set with colourful dishes. There are music rooms, rooms for the ladies to retire to while the men sit around the table and smoke and drink and talk politics.

I cannot express my experience of wandering through adequately and no pictures are allowed inside, so what I have taken is the outside which is so very different from inside – being Chinese oriented.

The Brighton Pavillion

The tour was recorded so you were given a recorder to  give you the history of every room. It was well done and gave you options to explore further with videos if you wanted more information.

The whole experience was a jewel. Many of the furnishings had been shipped to Windsor Castle for safe keeping but have now been returned.

There is a Society dedicated to restoring the pavillion and one can see the enormous effort that has taken place to do so.. It was in danger of being destroyed completely in the early 1900’s but the City bought it for 53,000 GBP and has done an amazing job of turning it into the destination. Gardens have also been redone to what they were when George was living there and although we didn’t see them, in bloom they would be fantastic.

Brighton Arcade at night, well obviously, doh...

 Next we walked the Pier, an arcade of gambling places, cheap, greasy fish and chips, kids rides – typical fair. Didn’t think I’d want to waste my feet on it but it is the most famous so had to have a boo. We walked the entire length. Flashing lights, Muzak music, whole block of casinos we didn’t venture into. However swarms of swallows over the sea and two types of seagulls one white, one with lovely brown markings. So something for everyone there, nature, being on the beach, or in an arcade.

The beach is pebbly with a coral colour, I saw a person set up an elaborate set of fishing rods this morning on the beach. He was very prepared and obviously does this often. Didn’t see him catch anything but bets are he  did. Also saw a waterskier later in the day, a pro, crossing the wake many times, had to have been wearing a wet suit, so cold on the Atlantic.

So two nights in Brighton, good decision to break up a longish trip, and seeing the Pavillion was very good value. 

Next, on to Bournemouth.

Cheers, Bx2 & Lexi Cat