1/22, Friday, Brighton

This morning it was raining. We started by visiting the Royal Pavilion, which was originally a royal residence in 1823 for George, Prince of Wales who later became King George IV. Later in 1850, the town of Brighton purchased the residence from Queen Victoria who disliked all the attention she got as Brighton became a popular vacation place for Londoners when a train route was established.

The residence has an Indian look on the outside, but the interior has a Chinese (Western interpretation) influence. Surprisingly, Prince George had never been to either country. No pictures were allowed in the residence. 

Once the rain at stopped, we went down to the Brigton Pier. I can see how this would be a hot spot for families on holiday even though it was pretty deserted today. There was a large video arcade for the young people and then a slot machine for the adults. At the end of the pier was a carnival type area. 

 The ferris wheel was turning, but it was so foggy we wouldn't have been able to see much anyway.

As cold as it was, we saw two older women swimming in the rough waves of the English Channel. 

From there we checked out the different shops in Brighton.

1/21, Thursday, Brighton

As usual, we got delayed by 1 hour leaving Gainesville Regional Airport. We had planned enough time to have a nice sit down meal in Atlanta International Airport, but instead we ended up with just enough time to get a snack. The flight sucked. I hate trying to sleep on a plane and the airplane food left me feeling queasy. 

Passport control at Heathrow was ridiculous. They had 36 booths, but only 6 were being used. It took us at least an hour to get through. Fortunately, we were not punching a clock, and our car would still be waiting for us, but it seemed like they could have handled the flux of people better. Every now and then we would see them escort a person to a little seating area surrounded by glass windows. It looked like a big penalty box.

We picked up the car and set off on the M25 motorway. Then my GPS started acting funny. There was two places where my GPS told me to go in two separate directions at the same time. Some how we ended up north of Heathrow when we should have been south. A minor detour and I got back on track.

Driving on the wrong side was strange. The traffic on the opposite side didn't bother me so much because I was concentrated on the 4 lanes on our side of the motorway. It is easy to go with the flow but I visually want to line up with the left side of the lane I am in. Meanwhile, the traffic is zipping around me like I was on the autobahn, and there were semi trucks everywhere. I was extremely lucky that it didn't rain while I was driving. We found the parking garage a few blocks from the hotel in Brighton without much problem. We left our bags at the hotel because we couldn't check in right away and went out. 

We walked around for a little while in the rather brisk windy city of Brighton. Then we came back and had a siesta, since we were up over 24 hours at that point. After a couple hour snooze, we headed out to a store around the corner to pick up a few necessities that I didn't feel like packing.

I haven't taken any pictures yet. Tomorrow is going to be wet.