Sunny Brighton
During Mum's month-long stay with us in London, we decided to do a day trip to Brighton to take advantage of the sensational September weather (so much sunshine!) and also to check out a place that Nick & I had been wanting to see.. but had been waiting for decent weather to do it!
We boarded the train at Clapham Junction for the hour and bit trip down to Brighton. Upon arriving in Brighton, the weather was MAGICAL! Not a cloud in the sky, it was warm but not hot, had a breeze but wasn't too cold, and although a few people had ventured down to the season for the day it wasn't too crammed with day visitors. Perfect!
We wandered from the train station straight to the beach, Mum's first pebble-beach experience I believe! The sun was warm on our backs and we sat there for a while enjoying the sunshine (such a rare pleasure in England!) despite rocks in our ass. I dipped my toe into the cool, 'refreshing' ocean and ventured a little bit too far wetting the bottom of my jeans. A small price to pay and it didn't bother me as the weather was sooo lovely!
From the beach, we wandered up towards the infamous Palace Pier, somewhat ignoring the burnt down Pier at the southern end of the beach. It was hard work walking on the pebbles, but it was so surprisingly pleasant to be outside we didn't mind. The Palace Pier was lovely, and we enjoyed watching all the kids on the carnival rides, and the game adults doing the huge swing (that freaked me out just watching them!). The view from the pier was picture perfect with not a cloud in the sky, and the sun warming up to about 22C. We could even take our jackets off!
Being at the seaside, we all were craving fish and chips for lunch. We found a cafe on the pier that was serving just that, and at a reasonable price we decided to enjoy the sun by eating our fish outside, washed down by a cider. Yes, Mum had her first cider.... and loved it.
In the afternoon, we headed back into Brighton to check out the Royal Pavillion (wow - very extravagant) and the inner city streets, including 'The Lanes' which took a little bit of time to find, but we found it in the end. The Lanes are some tiny, skinny lanes where a load of Antique shops are all squashed into. Very quaint, and cute but slightly out of our price range!
We caught a 4pmish train back to Clapham, full of fish, chips & cider and with rosy cheeks from the sunshine. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day by the seaside. Waiting all that time for a sunny day in Brighton was well worth the wait!
