Brighton

SATURDAY, Sept. 9: Day trip to Brighton.

Brighton and Hove is a small joint town on the southeast coast of England. It first became famous as a spa center (with some really harsh treatments such as bathing in the sea every day in WINTER and drinking different concoctions made of warm sea water and random parts of sea creatures), and it was also a popular place where royalty took time off. George IV, for example, loved the place when he was 22 (or around that age) and requested to build a special pavillion for himself. At first the pavillion was the small house of a local citizen, but then it turned into an architectural marvel combining Indian and Chinese styles. (You may want to verify the information somewhere if you're curious because I'm not sure how adequate I was while a French tour guide tried to explain the history of the town to a bunch of college kids in a stuffy bus - and on an empty stomach!) At least my camera was more or less content, so here are some photos, as usual:

Katie-Coral and Alison standing on the Brighton Pier.

The waves crashing in the rocky beach near the pier.

A view of the pavillion.

A broad view of the Brighton Pier - which is actually one of the three most famous places in the town.

Simply Seagull.

Katie-Coral amazed at the 'entertainment' section of the pier.

Tylor enjoying his greasy batch of Fish and Chips!

The Birds!! There were so many birds flying above the pier - ok, so this is the way piers are, but still, I was impressed by the flock...

Do it like the British do... Greasy, fishy, chipsy + vinegar!

That's what the beach was like. I'm not used to lots of that at the Black Sea. And Katie-Coral was definitely finding this a whole lot different than sunny California.

Another type of seagull...

Katie-Coral was really happy that she was at the beach again.

A clocktower, a lamp post, and a seagull: typical for Brighton.

A close-up of the beach. Looks similar to meals in the cafeteria ;)

Tylor was smiling... he only looks like he's frowning because of the sun that was in his eyes.

See, only a truly satisfied boy would lie on the pebbles like that...

I liked that feather which was randomly flying around. Here it posed for the shot.

Alison and the sea.

Katie-Coral in a state of near-nirvana (i.e. nirvanating).

A pool-like structure built in memorium of some soldiers. The birds had taken over that one, too!

Another view of the pavillion.

King George IV.

The court yard/gardens of the pavillion.

Oh, the third most famous landmark in Brighton - the fountain with the dolphins (which looked like fish and even had scales.. but ok, they're dolphins if you say so...)

Yes, we did... We couldn't resist the joy of riding the caroussel once again.. Katie-Coral (on the horse in front of me), Alison, and I (you obviously can't see the latter two:).

Yet another Indian detail of the pavillion (you may also spot the construction site in the back - they were renovating the place).

A view from the gardens.

And from another angle... And by now you're probably wondering where the Chinese architecture is... It's on the inside. It was amazing, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures. The best to see that is to go there yourself and absorb the atmosphere (along with the highly therapeutic sea vapuors) of Brighton.

And let's end with the citar guy. Lovely music; went well with the view.