London, United Kingdom

We slept ok, all things considered and enjoyed a full English breakfast in the elegant dining room before checking out. One other thing we had planned to see in Brighton was the Royal Pavilion and like Stonehenge we questioned whether we really really wanted to see it being £11.50 each entry, given we have seen quite a few lovely antiques, older homes, and palaces (in Europe). The Royal Pavilion is unique in that King George IV built it in an Indian and Asian style and decorated it in an over the top decadence very different to any other palace of the day. He was known to be trend setting, lively and a great party host and this particular palace was his party pad.

Vern did not mind one way of the other, however I ummed and ahhed and couldn’t make up my mind whether to go or not. Part of me said, yes – you will never be here again and you wouldn’t want to regret it just because you are ho-ha. The other part said its awfully expensive and do you really want to see another antique filled place from a lifestyle so far from your own, and you can’t even take photos there. What if its boring like Versaille was? I was dithering so much I was driving myself mad so said to Vern – lets go and look at the gardens which are free and make up our mind then.

Ever patient and obliging he agreed and we checked out and left our bags with Suzie to pick up after we had walked into town and seen the Pavilion (no sense paying more parking). It was a little damp when we set off, but the overnight rain had mostly stopped with the promise of a fine day later on. We enjoyed the simple yet lovely garden which they have restored to original drawings, down to variety where possible. There were a few people about doing the same and then we saw a few large school groups and tour groups heading towards the entry so we needed to make a decision quickly. OK – lets do it.

It is hard to describe the interior and as mentioned you are not allowed to take photos. The difficulty lies in the detail – there is so much detail you can hardly take it in. You look and see something then you look again and see 3 more accents or components. One room for example took the designer 2 years to complete his plan! I was so pleased I did decide to go – it was simply stunning, gorgeous and delicious. His flamboyant yet clever style and taste reminded me of King Ludwig of Bavaria who had a fantastic ‘eye’. I loved it so much that I was prepared to part with more money and buy a book from their shop but the quality of photos was poor in composition and resolution so I did not bother.

So what can I tell you about it? I can’t begin to describe the details and sumptuousness of the palace. Asian – Chinese and Indian themes are dominant with some English and French influences. The colours are Chinese – but beautiful reds, teals, blues, pinks, pale yellows, and gold everywhere. There is a most stunning chandelier in the dinning room with a dragon at the top. George loved dragons and snakes and these feature a lot. Each room is like an exotic painting or work of art.

On the way back to the car we had a nice lunch in a cafe we saw the other day – sausage and caramelised onion roll, goats cheese and courgette quiche with 3 salads (spinach, greek and roasted vegetable), tea and coffee totalling £12. It was really good, and Spanish/French influenced by the dishes they had on offer.

We retrieved our car from the distant car park and got our bags before heading out of town for a 50 minute drive to Gatwick where we returned the car to Hertz and became ‘travellers’ again with bags and packs. On this trip we did 1,858 miles (2,990 km). We are so thankful to have had safe and incident free travel, and whilst its been awesome having the freedom of a car it has also come with a measure of stress and responsibility. The freedom aspect is also a bit double sided – you get to do more, simply because you can. You do not have to consider train or bus schedules and accordingly get tempted to fit more into your day which is actually not a good thing for us as we push the limits given half the opportunity and cram as much as we can in. I have tried to say ‘lets rest this afternoon so I can catch up on some blogs but it never transpires as there is always a little thing to do that ends up taking up that ‘free’ time. Today however is different as we plan to have some downtime today in London. I will blog and Vern is confirming our plans for our next 4 days here.

At Gatwick we caught the airport express train into the city £19 each for a 30 minute trip. The bus is a lot cheaper at £13 but of course is traffic dependant and takes an hour in good traffic … The train takes you direct to Victoria underground station, and from there it was a two stop, £2 fare to Gloucester Station, which is a 2 minute walk from our Holiday Inn hotel at Kensington Gardens.

When we arrived at Victoria we purchased an ‘Oyster’ card from the ticket stand which is a plastic card loaded with a dollar amount, for a set amount of days, and zones (you select). A 5 day, 3 zone cost us £37 each and we can swipe away and travel to our hearts content above and underground on train, tube and bus at a discounted rate. The discount is about 50% of the normal fare and it caps per day so you never pay more than £6 in fares a day. Additionally when you are finished you can cash in your plastic card and any money you have not used (under your £6 per day).

The London rail network is huge – like Paris but due to our previous experience with rail last holiday we managed to cotton on quickly where to go – with one lot of help as to whether we were going east or west on the ‘yellow’ line. Within a few minutes we were at our station and hotel which was literally 2 minutes walk around the corner.

As I am a rewards member of the hotel group I asked if there were any upgrades and was thrilled to bits to get moved up to a larger room with a ‘view’ (non rail side), free wifi, and a bigger bed with a bath! All these extras come free. I had to restrain myself from jumping over the counter and giving the nice young man a hug. When we got up to our room we were like excited teens on a ‘naughty’ weekend – simply marvelling at the softness of the bed, the luxury pillows, a table to write on, the space in the bathroom… air conditioning and opening window option.

For dinner we just walked a couple of minutes up the road and had a simple dinner – like the lunch where you choose from a cold selection in front of you like a deli selection and they heat it and bring it out. A main was £4.95 and if you wanted salad it was £1.50 on top. Pretty good value! We had a lasagne and a bbq sticky glazed chicken with some nice salads on the side. It was tasty, cheap and we couldn’t fit it all in. They did not have cider so I had an Italian beer which was not too shabby at all!