Lovely Lively Brighton

I had a few misgivings as we arrived in Brighton.  First impressions were of  a rundown seaside town well past it's hey day, a little bit scruffy and lots of graffiti.  But we both changed our mind once we had got a chance to have a wonder around.  

There are absolutely loads of shops in an area called The Lanes, just a short walk from the front, lovely independent shops selling everything from jewellery and clothes to records and plants.

  

You are spoilt for choice for places to eat too, Chinese, Indian, Greek, Turkish, Thai, Japanese as well as the usual pub grub and of course fish and chips.  We tried one of the Greek restaurants on Tuesday night and it was wonderful.

The weather was kind to us too, although from these photos you would think otherwise!

It was late afternoon when I went a little walk down to take a look at the Bandstand and the sea, It was quite warm but very very windy, that's whats whipping up those waves.  

I love watching the sea but I wouldn't like to have been as close as these kids!

Our hotel was right opposite this beautiful Victorian Bandstand, built in 1884 it is said to be one of the finest examples of Victorian Bandstands surviving in England today. 

It is rather lovely, don't you think?

Another building from the Victoria era is the Grand Hotel, It was built in 1864 and still looks very impressive 

It was at the Grand Hotel In 1984 during the Conservative Party Conference an assassination attempt was made on the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, she of course survived but the bomb killed five other people.

The Upside Down House on the beach, It looks rather quirky but we didn't go in.

Brighton has a pebble beach, so this pool is a great idea for the kids

Looking back from the Pier

The i360 viewing tower is on the seafront, and despite the fact that I not like heights you should all know by now that I have to go on the highest things, lol

The pod takes you up 450ft, you don't even realise you are moving.

The building of the Royal Pavilion started in 1787 it was built in three stages and was a seaside retreat of King George IV.  The rooms all have Chinese or Indian themes, I was taken with the dining room and the staircase which was wood but painted to look like wicker, very clever, and must have taken an age to do.

There is a no photographs inside the rooms, rule but I did manage to take a sneaky one of the dining room before I was told off by a rather stern guide :-0

That chandelier is HUGE, there is a dragon at the top which is carved from wood and is 10ft long.

There is more information HERE if you are interested.

We also took a trip on one of the tour buses which was quite interesting, funny thing happened though, the tour was advertised as £14 each, ( but you do get three tours), we got on and paid by card, we were charged £20 for the two of us.  When I mentioned it to Mark and he looked at the ticket we had been charged the pensioners price😮😮😮 Cheek!! 

I've got another two years before that privilege, we had the last laugh though because it saved us £8😁😁😁 

We didn't go straight home on Wednesday, Mark had to go to his office to pick up drawings, (the firm he works for is based in Portsmouth), and from there we decided to stop in Marlborough, Wiltshire, we stopped off there a few years back when we visited Stonehenge, it's only a little town but has some nice shops and pubs.  

Mark has the rest of the week off too so I put him to work in the garden yesterday morning moving some plants and emptying the window boxes, cleaning windows and putting weedkiller around the drive, while I gave the house a good clean, we were all done by early afternoon so I was able to sit and do some stitching on Arthur's Christmas stocking, (I will get around to taking a photo this weekend).  Today we have emptied the shed and evicted the spiders and put everything back nice and tidy, I have also given my little blue house a good clean and washed the curtains and the rug, It was too hot to sit in there this afternoon though, but it's all clean now for me to do that tomorrow.

I offered a book on my last post, there was only Tina (no blog) who said she would like to read it so Tina, it's yours.  I will message you later but if you are coming to stitching on Wednesday I will bring it with me.

Another long post, I seem to have an inability to keep things short, lol

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend if you are in the UK, it looks like August will go out with a heatwave so being British we will all be making the most of it 😎😎 because it could all change in an instance!

See you soon

-X-