Day Out: Brighton and St Albans

On a sunny Saturday, for no reason other than it was going to be a lovely day, I decided to go with some friends to Brighton! Bri and Patrick live in St Albans, so the plan was to catch a train to East Croydon, where I would get on the same train as them to Brighton for the day. It went really smoothly, I made it on the correct train, even in the same carriage, and then only one stop away, the train stopped. The train in front of us had a signal failure, got stuck, and we had to stop. Luckily we were at a station, so they made us disembark, change platforms and change to the next Gatwick Airport train so that we could get to Brighton. It seemed like it was going to be a really big disruption, but in the end it was only about 15 minutes. We were lucky enough to get off the train quickly, make it to a good spot on the platform, and onto the very next train! It was even a fast train to Brighton in the end.

When we arrived, we decided the first thing we wanted to do was get lunch, so we walked to the pier. When we got there, however, we had done a quick google and realised that one of the apparent best fish and chip shops in the city was only 10 minutes walk away! So we strolled up and down the pier, as you do, then returned back the way we had come to the Regency restaurant.

The fish and chips was pretty great! I'm not sure that it was the best fish and chips I've ever had, but it was definitely very good and I haven't had excellent fish and chips in ages. Well worth it. Then we went for a stroll towards and around the Laines. We stopped off at my favourites, Choccywoccydoodah and the antique sword shop. They were super interesting as usual!

Then we wandered over to the Pavilion, which of course I had seen from the outside often, but we went inside, which I'd never done. It was really interesting, with lots of beautiful period furniture, and I learnt a lot about George (the 3rd?), including how ridiculed he was... He loved food, and parties, and apparently once had a meal with 100 courses at the Pavilion, so no wonder he ended up obese! Apparently he was one of the first people to use what was effectively a wheelchair because he was so big. Wow.

After that we had some tasty icecream (but not banoffee pie, which we pointed out to the shop was growing mould!), and then headed back to the train. It was a lovely sunny hot day, with weather which is frankly quite Australian.

Then we caught the train back to St Albans, which was much smoother than the other journey, made delicious pasta and drank cocktails while we watched Bake Off. A lovely way to end an evening.

On Sunday morning, we went to Gail's for breakfast. Their brioche French toast was just as good as their cinnamon buns! Then I headed home - and what a delightful weekend.

Weekend Away: Brighton

Brighton

8-9 April 2017

Husbando planned to run the Brighton Marathon on this weekend, so when we got up on Saturday morning, we packed an overnight bag and headed straight to Victoria station! Turns out it only takes an hour to get to Brighton... We emerged into the bright sunshine of Brighton. In fact, it was one of the warmest weekends in a long time (marathon day was 21+ degrees!) and gorgeously sunny!

 

We headed straight to the hotel to drop off our bags, then to the beach (or "beach", depending on who you're talking to...). Some people don't believe that Brighton has a 'real' beach! We walked along the beach to Brighton Pier.

It was actually quite strange to be back in Brighton again after so long... It's been 9 years since I was last there (on my gap year), but some things were exactly the same (like the food places we used to frequent, and the tattoo parlour I got my ears pierced in!), but obviously some things were very different. Very strange.

 

We ate a delicious lunch on the Pier itself, reasonably priced and exceedingly yummy! Generally though, we have realised that London is expensive. Everything in Brighton was cheaper... After lunch, we went further down the beach to the Event Village for the marathon to pick up the race pack for the following day. Then we wandered the Lanes a little (I had put visiting Choccywoccydoodah on my must-do list, and it was AMAZING to see in person!), but then we headed back to the hotel to rest up for the next day. 

We tried to go for italian for dinner, but realised after the third fully booked restaurant that maybe we should have booked, given the 10,000 runners who were also in Brighton that weekend... (Also apparently a lot of hen's parties - we saw 4 that evening!) We ended up at Jamie's, where we could have nibbles and a drink in the bar while we waited for a free table. Luckily it didn't take long.

 

On Sunday morning, I slept in... Oops! I ended up with 20 minutes to get ready, but I managed it - just. We headed up to the race start with all the things (including sunscreen...). It was already very warm, which was mildly concerning. I watched the start and the lap of the park, then headed back into the Lanes. I wet back to Choccywoccydoodah to look again at their amazing creations - and I had seen a green chocolate dinosaur that I wanted to take home with me. However, they had sold out in less than 12 hours... Which made me very sad, and instead I got a chocolate coin (a huge one!). I also visited the Duck House, a cute shop that only sells rubber ducks!

 
 
I tried to catch my runner at mile 18, but I was too slow and missed him. Silly me. So instead I had picnic sushi in a park, then began the very very very busy walk to the finish line. It was madness, and with spectators on both sides of the track, very busy especially at crossing points. Somehow though, I missed my runner finishing (so sad about that, it was such a big achievement!), but I met him at the predetermined spot. It only took me about 10 minutes just to cross the road though, madness. And after all that, he forgot to put any sunscreen on, so Husbando is lobster-esque at the moment! We rested a bit, then began the long trek back up the hill to the hotel.

It was such a crazy busy weekend, but really enjoyable. We have plans to go back for the day, only on a day without 10,000 extra people there!