On our very first trip of this magnitude (as in leaving North America), we chose to travel to the UK. This was an easy decision as Lori’s mother was born there, and emigrated to Canada in 1948 as a war bride. She had never been back. We decided to take her and anyone that could come from Lori’s family could come if they could. As it turned out, two of her brothers came along. They had cousins in the UK, who we reached out to and were ecstatic to have us come. As a result of this, we have established a strong bond with the UK group and we see them all on a regular basis, either them coming here, us going there or meeting up with them somewhere. This particular post comes from that first trip and highlights a run we made into Brighton, with Peter, Lori’s cousin, as our guide. Once there we met up with Lori’s mothers friends from the old days, Don and Margaret.
We drove down from East Grinstead and found a spot to park fairly close to where we wanted to be. We started to walk through the city towards the ocean.
To get to the sea, we had to pass through an amazing area know as “The Lanes“. An area of narrow streets, shops, pubs and restaurants. a very charming area and a beehive of activity.
After making it through The Lanes, we arrived at the shore. We met up with Ethel’s friends and headed out onto the pier. The pier is immense and full of things to do, as in an amusement park. It was a beautiful day and we took in as much as we could with the amount of time that we had. Here are a couple of photos of the pier.
There are some hazards. The gulls are voracious, watch your food closely or it will magically disappear, and never, ever look up. Here is graphic proof. (Caution, the following picture contains scenes that are not pretty)
Enough fun for one day, time to eat. First Roger would have to wash up. Don’t want to be looking at that while we are eating do we. We found a nice little spot, but first we had to find Lori’s mother. She disappeared on us while we were looking at menus. She was still where we left her. Poor Peter, he had pay each of us 5 pounds as hush money to not tell his sisters. In his own words, they gave me one job, “Take care of the guest of honour, and I go and lose her”. We told them anyway of course. He survived. I had become rather fond of English Breakfasts in my time in the UK, and once again ordered the specialty.
Our time in Brighton was over, and back to our cottage for the evening. If you are interested in Brighton, I recommend a full day and night. There are two universities in town and the night life appears to reflect that. Lots of music. Another one of those places where we should have spent more time, but couldn’t. Perhaps we will get back there someday.
Here are some links if you are interested in visiting Brighton.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton
http://www.brightonpier.co.uk/indexflash.htm
Is It Possible To See It All 