Day 30 - Brighton to London

Steve & Sylvia with Jack & Alex

Steve and Sylvia and family were planning to start a two day walk in the Surry South Downs today, but with a change of plans with Steve’s sister there was no longer a need for them to make an early start on the day’s outing. So it was that breakfast was a more delayed and casual affair than it might otherwise have been, which made for a relaxed start to the day. I was able to arrange a suitable family photo for the travel archives before saying my farewells at the end of a very pleasant stay and heading off to explore more of Brighton for the day.


It was a quite relaxing feeling heading off knowing that I had no particular agenda and no particular time that I had to be back in London. I explored the shops of the North Lanes and made my back to “The Red Gecko” which happened to sell lizards of all things.

The Royal Pavilion

Afterwards I followed up on Sylvia and Steve’s recommendation about one of Brighton’s signature attractions and went to have a look through the Royal Pavilion – the ornate palace built by George IV in the early 1800s. The outside has the look of an Indian palace while much of the inside is decorated in the ornate Chinese style quite popular at the time – including a magnificent chandelier that weighs a ton and is held in the claws of a sculptured Chinese dragon. The free audio tour provided lots or interesting background on the life of George IV and the history of the pavilion’s creation, and its use since sold by Queen Victoria in the late 1840s. All up I took about an hour and 45 minutes on the self guided audio tour.

With the tour completed I enjoyed another walk through the maze of narrow alley ways known as The Lanes as I made my way back up the hill to the train station. I caught the 3:19pm express to London and was back at Chris and Janelle’s house in just over an hour. All that followed was another pleasant relaxing late afternoon and evening of dinner and conversation plus catching up on emails. Mind you, my local hosts were struggling a little in the mini heat wave of temperatures in the mid to high 20s.