Brighton

On Friday we headed to Brighton ... there is a royal property there called the Royal Pavilion that we wanted to see as well as the famed Brighton Pier.

The Royal Pavilion was first rented, and then redesigned in the early 19th century (1815-22) by George IV when he was Prince Regent and was meant to be a seaside resort. He had the exterior designed after Indian style architecture, and the interior was influenced by Chinese style - even though he had never been to either country! It was quite unique and the Banqueting Room was the most ornate dining room any of us had ever seen! The chandelier weighed two and a half tonnes and was held in the jaws of a dragon at the top. There was also a very fancy music room complete with a large pipe organ and a replica of the original hand woven rug....however, we weren't allowed to take pics inside. Also the exterior of the Pavilion was under construction, so it was hard to get a decent picture without the scaffolding : ) Apparently Queen Victoria spent time here but didn't like the lack of privacy, I guess by the time she came along Brighton was a bigger city.



After the Pavilion we had some lunch at Tim's new favorite cafe: Pret a Manger ... he's planning on expanding the franchise in Canada ; )

We then walked down to the coast to see the Pier ... we were shocked when we found ourselves in a crazy wind tunnel that nearly pushed us back up the street - it was so windy by the water!!! Regardless we checked out the pier: there was an arcade, fair rides etc., kinda like Coney Island or something...pretty cool. We saw some surfers and survived the crazy wind to make it back to the car. The Pier was nice, but would have been nicer had it been a sunny day, and minus the gale force winds!





Team PM