Brighton, United Kingdom

Our sleep in the shoe box was not too bad, probably due to sheer tiredness than comfort. At 8:30 we went down to the beautiful dining room on the ground floor for our chef cooked breakfast. The whole boutique hotel (est. 1846) is decorated in a French Provincial style which I love, complimented by darker antiques and accents like old rustic bicycles on landings or beautiful sideboards/dressers.

The dining room is set up with the kitchen in full view and Telly (husband, ex Holland) does a great job of cooking and presentation on large decorative glass plates. Vernon had a full English and I had scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and cream cheese on the side with a toasted bagel. Following this some lovely fresh fruit salad with organic yoghurt, toast and French jams. I was too busy tucking in that I missed taking a photo!

The day looked nice and bright so we decided to go and look at the white cliffs up the coast after we posted back home a few of our winter clothes and the jug. The post office was about 10 minute walk up the street which we walked right past as it was at the back of a dairy – superette shop. Adding to the confusion you buy your bags from the superette and then go to the back around the corner to post. We had packed up our box but not sealed it just incase we had to pull something out. We weighed it at the hotel and knew it was 4.8kg, and our understanding was that a 2kg small parcel rate was £13 and above that you pay an extra £1.70 per 250gr. Wrong. It goes from the 2kg small parcel rate to rip off rate and our parcel was going to cost £76.

Keeping the story brief, we ripped up that box, bought a smaller box and a bag and posted it as two 2kg parcels, which weren’t £13 each as the OLD brochure stated that we got from Bath, but £21. Regardless this gave us a lighter load for our manual handling for the remainder of the journey. 4.8 kg does not sound much, but as RS says, “on a trip even a straw weighs heavy”, and we agree.

The side streets of Brighton city were bustling this morning with all sorts of people out and about catching the sun, late breakfasts and early shopping. There were certainly some odd sights, colourful sights, and poor and drug/alcohol problems sights. Lots of dogs of all sizes and shapes accompanying their owners and probably more gay couples than I have seen in my life time. The shops are small, being the lower level of the old terraced buildings. We came across an ‘Antique Flea-market’ shop that was full of wonderful treasures that we stopped to enjoy with a commitment not to buy and have to visit the post office again. Items ranged from what you would see at a garage sale – from matchbox cars, toys, nick nacks to lovely furniture and household chattels and ornaments. A very bad shop for my sister Gisele!

The 45 minute drive up the coast was not far in distance, but slow due to multiple roundabouts and small towns. Just up the road a couple of km’s from our hotel we saw small white cliffs which was a surprise as we had no idea they were evident so close to Brighton. It was lovely and scenic driving along with the blue sky and blue sea on one side and the green rolling farmland on the other side. Our hotel hosts had suggested rather than Beachyhead alone, we might like to go to the ‘Seven Sisters’ which is very close and perhaps more scenic. The ‘Sisters’ have been used for a few film sets such as ‘Atonement’ and ‘The French Lieutenant’.

When we got to the car park at the ‘Seven Sisters’ we saw a sign that it was a local ‘picnic at the beach day’ and there were not only quite a few tourists around, but locals with their dogs and children enjoying the warm day. Suzie our host says that when the sun is out people go crazy because they know it probably wont be out the next day – I can totally see what she means. We had parked in a valley where there is an information centre, WC and cafe. To walk to the beach you have to go down some stairs and despite the wind that was blowing over the cliffs and up the valley it looked sheltered down where the white bodies were sun worshipping (not quite warm enough for us though). To the left you could walk up a reasonably sized hill with a steady gentle incline to a lighthouse at the top. We saw that was where most were walking like on a pilgrimage so off we went following suit.

We spent about an hour or so wandering up and around the hill which was conveniently on the other side of Beachyhead – so we did not have to drive or go further. Beachyhead is an outcrop around the same height as the one we were at the top of and we had great views of that as well as the seven other outcrops to the east, so we had actually landed at the perfect spot. The cliffs are dazzling white and dramatically high. I managed to sit on my back side within half a metre of the edge, but was not game to go closer or hang my feet over like some others did for fear of crumbling off the edge! Beachyhead unfortunately is famous for being a suicide spot, either by driving your car off or leaping off. I read on the web that in May alone the crisis team had 18 call outs. It was a lovely spot on a perfect day and I would recommended visiting here as these cliffs are very white, easy (and free) to access and view in comparison to Dover, which apparently are a bit dirty, greeny and not so accessible. Note in one of the photos all the tiny wildflowers on the ground – they released a lovely warm summer sweet hay and brambles fruiting fragrance which along with the sea air made the experience feel “childhood comforting” and a little familiar.

We completed our visit with some local, award winning honey and glace ginger ice-cream from the cafe which was good enough to come second to the Isle of Man ice-cream before returning home. Unfortunately but quite expected we had lost our ‘mint’ car park whilst out, and we ended up having to park about 2 blocks, or 8 minute walk away from our hotel. Once home we set out for our night on the town and left on foot via the beach to have a posh on the pier fish and chips dinner at the ‘spiritual home’ of fish and chips (so they say here).

The ‘beach’ or waterfront is only a couple of minutes from our hotel. The town is built on the edge of a small hill and you have to go down steps about 50ft to reach beach level. There is no sand on the beach but stones and large pebbles, predominantly orange colour which were a bit hard to walk on for my tender feet. There were some brave people out swimming still at 6pm, but more were picnicking or playing and enjoying the summers day. There were drinking and eating stands/shops at the bottom but they weren’t quite the establishments we were after so we paddled our feet and made our way up to the Pier.

I was expecting it to be a bit ‘tacky’ being an English Pier however, it was actually rather nice and can be best described as going to the annual Agricultural Spring show crossed with Rainbows End. It was only when I stood and examined how many rides and the big gaming halls that I realised how large the Pier is. The atmosphere was “fun at the fair” and even though there was plenty of alcohol available it was a very safe family place without nonsense where everyone was having a good time, from young to old. There were some very good rides and games and we wandered around and just soaked up the nice vibe after enjoying a sit down classy fish and chips with peas and gravy (which was ok but not the best we have had).