brighton
Royal Pavilion, Brighton
The Royal Pavilion in Brighton is the strangest place. By appearances, it looks like an exotic middle-eastern palace. The architecture is stunningly intricate, consisting of vertical columns, and ornate spires, making you feel like you are standing in the middle of Indoa. However you are in fact standing in the middle of Brighton, UK.
The pavilion was built for King George IV (regent at the time) between 1784 and 1811. Being far from London (at least before the train service), it was used by him for his dirty weekends with his “long-time companion”, Mrs Fitzherbert.
If you are in Brighton, visit the Pavilion, or at least sit for a few minutes in the wonderful gardens around the back and enjoy the architecture.
Restaurants in the lanes, Brighton
The lanes in Brighton are a wonderful set of pedestrian roads and alleys filled with little restaurants and shops. It is a complete maze, and very easy to get completely disorientated and lost in them.
However getting lost is part of the experience, you will simply another interesting little shop.
The shops used to be the fishermen’s cottages, and they still retain a lot of their character.
There is also daily ghost walk, where you learn about the murders, lovers, ghosts and haunting in and around the lanes. It is a little cheesy, but for 5 pounds it is a fun 90 minutes.
Beach houses in Brighton
These beach houses remind me very much of the Muizenberg beach houses. Well that should not really be a surprise since the Muizenberg beach houses are based on the ones in Brighton.
However while Muizenberg has about 5 houses, in Brighton there are rows are rows of them, literally hundreds of them in a long ling all the way from the Pier through Hove into the next village.
If you plan on buying a hut you had best start saving; they start at 11,000 pounds!.
By the way, the rules dictate the colours that the houses are painted, but you are free to paint the door whatever colour suits you.
One of the many daily commuters in Brighton cycling past the famous beach huts.
Till death do us part
A chocolate skull found in a remarkable shop in the lanes in Brighton. They specialise in morbid and gothic chocolates and cakes.
It is rather bizarre, but the artwork is absolutely amazing. I forget the exact figues, but the cake costs something like 200 pounds, but it feeds about 100 people.
The shop is called choccywoccydoodah, and their website is www.choccywoccydoodah.com.
I think that their other shops do regular chocolates, but not this branch.
Brighton Beach
Yes, it is true. Brighton does not have a real beach. The beach consists purely of round pebbles. Ok so yes the beach is real, just not to a South African.
They have been word down for such a long time, that they are almost soft to walk on. But it is really different to walking on the beaches in Cape Town.
The upside of course is that when then wind blows, you don’t get the Cape Town sandblasting.
Here is a small pier with fishermen on the end (of course not to be confused with Brighton Pier)
Brighton beach is a great place to sit and contemplate the world; these two people were shot in Hove, sitting and watching the sea