Category: Miscellaneous

That’s the view from the balcony of our Brighton hotel. As you can see it’s a lovely day, albeit very windy. Still, the rain is gone!

The train trip here was short and sweet, and we spent the afternoon exploring the seaside and shopping district. There’s a lot of people here, but there will be many many more in a few days when Gay Pride starts.

The lighting here is worth mentioning. None of the photos in today’s post have any colour correction on them, and everything looked bright and very colorful in the sunlight filtered through the clouds.

That’s a Pac-Man fruit machine (i.e. old-fashioned gambling machine)! This was in one of the many gambling arcades, and actually pays out in 10p coins if you win!

KLS eating a champagne flavored Magnum!

By later in the day the wind had gotten nearly cyclonic and when we returned to the pier to see the rides at night most of them were closed because of the wind.

Maybe we’ll get a chance to ride a few tomorrow 🙂

That’s a direct quote from the weather girl this morning. While it did rain, I think she was being a bit dramatic. We were up early in Hyde Park and the birds were there to greet us.

We visited the famous Harrods department store which is a surreal place with its mad (but stylish) decor – such as the Egyptian escalators – and items that only the insanely rich could afford. For instance take this Faberge egg:

It’s yours for a mere £500,000! And that doesn’t even include the ring, which cost an additional £152,000! If I had that money I reckon I’d spend it on something more houselike!

It rained most of the day, and we pottered around the Soho area doing a bit of shopping. Eventually the rain grew heavy enough we snuck into a pub for lunch…

And then visited the National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square.

Afterwards, a bit more shopping…

And then back to the hotel to die a little after four very long and busy days! We need a vacation!

Good thing we’re heading to the seaside tomorrow 🙂

Yesterday we went on a bus tour.

Our first stop was Leeds Castle, a beautiful old castle that has had many owners and iterations over several hundred years. The interior is an unusual mix of the old and new.

My favourite room was the library 🙂

We could have easily spent more time in the grounds of the castle exploring the hedge maze and falcon show but we’re on a tight schedule and only managed to squeeze in a sausage roll!

Our next – very brief – stop was the pebble beach at Dover.

We then continued to lovely Canterbury with its famous Cathedral, the seat of the Anglican Church.

This is a seriously old building, almost 1000 years in fact, and awe inspiring in its size and majesty.

I was particularly impressed by the abundance and beauty of the stained glass. That’s a more recent example above, and was many meters tall.

After Canterbury we then ended up in Greenwich for a Thames cruise back to London. It was a long day, but we got to see a lot 🙂