Brighton

During the Holidays I remember looking at a "Kent" calendar in the bookstore and seeing the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. So since adding that to our list of places to see, we made the one and a half hour drive down to go see it! The weather was typical--grey skies and since it was right on the water, really windy. The drive down was a fun one, as they usually are :-) We listened to the Tron soundtrack that Peter loves so much and I took in the sites. We parked at a Park & Ride which turned out to be free(!) then hopped on the bus that took us in to town. The houses out there are stunning, we sat on the second floor of a double decker bus so had a really good view of the homes. 

We first walked down to the Pier to get the cold bit out of the way first :-) You could immediately tell that this would be a gorgeous place to visit during summertime. We walked along the Pier while taking pictures & taking in the beauty and on our way back, stopped for a bag of biltong. Then we continued our walk up to the Royal Pavilion. I was hesitant about going inside because it honestly didn't look as big as I thought it would outside (don't judge a book by it's cover?). But after paying the student discounted rate and seeing the inside, I was thrilled. We had an audio guide as we walked through the pavilion, which was nice as it helped me to understand and really appreciate what it is I was seeing. I knew nothing about King George IV before coming here, and by the time I'd left, I feel like I knew the guy! The decor of the place is absolutely i n c r e d i b l e.  Literally, I got chills when we walked into the banquet room. Unfortunately you aren't allowed pictures since all of the wallpaper is the original-but here is what it looks like in there: Banquet Room & Lotus. He basically built this place as a weekend/holiday getaway, decorated to impress his guests. Hanging above us all over were these massively gorgeous chandeliers that literally (according to our audio guide) weighed a ton. A few of them hung by Dragon's mouths, while others for example in the dancing room, were held by Lotus flowers. An amazing fact about this place is that it's decorated entirely inspired by Asian culture, although King George had never actually been to Asia. It was simply based on pictures he had seen. You would never know this after being inside and seeing the detail of everything from the wall paper,  the paintings on the walls, the furniture, everything. We stayed in here for a few hours, taking in the beauty of the place and learning about the past. After, we had a sweet little picnic on a bench outside, although we were bothered by the massive amount of birds (which Brighton is known for having) and then continued on our adventure. We walked around to find the "Lanes," a famous little shopping area with lots of antiques, jewelry and quirky restaurants and pubs. It was again, smaller than I imagined it would be, but lots of fun nonetheless!