Brighton

I was planning on a simple two hour layover in London, but as fate would have it, the flight from London to Seattle was full and I agreed to be bumped. I could hardly say no when the opportunity to spend a day in England, have my food and board paid and in addition, receive an extra €600. So, I stayed over. Had to quickly decide what to do with myself. Sitting around the hotel didn’t sound like much fun, even though it might have been nice to watch the results of the Washington state caucus come in, that’s a little like watching paint dry.

So, I decided to rent a car and drive someplace. To those that have read a few of my blog entries, big surprise, right? Anyway, didn’t know where I was going to go. Thought I might head into London, but on my way to the Avis car lot, I spoke to the shuttle driver. He suggested I go to Brighton. I’ve always wanted to go to Brighton. I’ve heard it mentioned many times in movies and books. It’s only a little over an hour away by car, so I thought, why not.

It’s a fairly quick drive out of London really. This is the first scene where I actually saw the ocean from the road.

And if you were to turn around from where I took that picture you’d see this.

Brighton is a popular place for people in London to go. They take the train, cars, and of course, the bus.

There’s a store called ‘Seattle’. Made me a little home sick.

Taken from the pub where I had a tasty dish of Fish and Chips.

Taken from behind the pub where I ate.

After eating, I decided to head to the lanes, which is a famous and very old part of town where all the bars, restaurants and really dress up people are. It’s really an interesting part of town. Took a few pictures here and there and generally just people watched. It so reminded me of some of the London scenes from Harry Potter. Thought my kids might enjoy some of these pictures.

This is a picture of the pier. Sort of has that coney island feel to it. Ice cream, candy, amusement rides, and boardwalks combined with the waterfront. It was nice and in the summer must be very enjoyable. Being that it was Feb, it was still very cold. But, people braved the cold and were having fun anyway. Solid English stock…

Just loved this quintessential pub.

More scenes from the lanes.

I happened to catch the last part of this guy’s ghost walk. It was really funny and quite entertaining. He basically walks around the lanes and tells ghost stories from the different places in the area in his overcoat and strong English accent. Enjoyed this.

Not a great picture, but I didn’t want to get too close and blind him while he was performing. As it was, he sort of blinked and I felt bad for taking the picture.

I wandered around quite a bit, found a cool rock on the beach for Sarah, played some of the games in the video arcade. It was a nice distraction for the night. Then I headed back to London. I realized when I finally got back into my hotel room that I’d been up for over 25 hours. Flying in the same direction as the sun plays tricks on you. I had gotten up the morning before at around 3 am and had been going until Hyderabad time 5:30am… So, I slept well last night. Off to the airport now.