Got up bright and early. After a somewhat disappointing breakfast, we headed out into a pleasant day. Clear skies, no wind or rain and mild temperatures - finally! We started out by wandering around some lanes near the seafront in an area known imaginatively as The Lanes. As we were bright and early, nothing was open so we settled for looking at the old buildings.
Our first official tourist activity was visiting the Royal Pavilion. It is described as an exotic blend of Indian and Chinese visual styles, as imagined by the English of the Regency period who had never visited. Garish, completely over the top, in poor taste, tacky are words than came to my mind when I saw it. Also, very impressive. I'm very glad we made the detour here to see it. It isn't like anything else. Also, as it was built for a King George, there were dragons everywhere. I was sorely tempted to buy a gorgeous red and gold dragon from the gift shop but, sadly, it was too big to fit into my suitcase.
We then had lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant called Al Duomo. This was a mistake. We had been mislead by the Italian proprietor sitting at an outside table chatting to his mates in Italian. We believed it would be good food. However, the meals had been dumbed down for Anglo tastes and were dull. We have developed our own food rating scheme, with ratings from worst to best. Given that we are in England, we have given each level a suitably understated name. They are Not Very Good, Dull, Harmless, You Can Eat It and Not Bad. Al Duomo rated a Dull from me, although Mary thinks Harmless is more accurate.
After lunch we went to the Brighton Art Gallery & Museum. This has a very eclectic collection. There was a gallery of 20th century furniture, objects and paintings, two galleries on Ancient Egypt with many interactive displays for children (and consequently, many small children), one gallery of fashion through the ages and one on transgender people and their experiences. There was also a visiting exhibition on the painter Constable and his paintings of Brighton and the obligatory Jane Austen exhibition (which was a stretch as she had never visited and barely mentions Brighton in her novels). We had a very interesting time here. I was expecting to be bored.
We ended the day wandering through the lanes north of the city centre, known as the North Laines (not a typo) area. We were far too straight, white and middle-aged with far too few bits of metal in our bodies to fit in with the locals here. Again, an eclectic and very interesting mix of shops (and passersby) to look at here.
Finally, we tottered back to our hotel via Brighton pier. We may not have covered a lot of ground, but it was very hilly walking and my calves are not happy with me. I'm not looking forward to walking back to the station when it is time to leave. Our hotel is on the seafront, while the station is at the very top of the town. Getting down here with the suitcases was easy, up is not going to be fun.
For dinner we went to the nearby Siam Siam restaurant and ate comfort food. We had a set menu which started with mixed entrees of chicken satay, spring rolls and fish cakes. The we had beef rendang curry, chilli chicken stir fry, pad thai noodles, a vegetable stir fry and jasmine rice. All dishes I've eaten many times before. They had been moderated somewhat for Anglo tastes but still had a decent amount of spice. We rated some dishes Harmless and some You Can Eat It.
After dinner we went back to the hotel and played a card game about the monarchs of England that I have bought from the souvenir shop at the Brighton Pavilion. It was somewhat similar to gin rummy. We modified the rules somewhat but Mary still managed to win hands down. Do we know how to have an exciting time or what?
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