3. Brighton (but without the rock).

Today, Sunday, we took the train down to Brighton on the south coast. Once again an ancestral link was to the fore as the paternal side of my family hails from the city although I have only visited once before back in the early seventies.

There was only a limited amount of time in which to have a look around two or three of the main attractions. The first of these was Brighton Pavillion which, it has to be said, looks rather out of place in an English seaside town. It being only a few weeks until Christmas, the entire front area of the Pavillion grounds had been taken over by an ice rink. This meant that photo opportunities were few and far between but we watched the busy rink for a while and winced in sympathy with the many fallers.

Next stop was Brighton Pier (or Palace Pier as it was known when I was last here). We joined the throngs of people walking the wooden boards and resisted the pull of the penny arcades, fortune tellers and candy floss stalls. However, the afternoon was bright and sunny and the waterfront and pebble beach looked very pleasant in the cold November air.

Lastly we spent some time exploring the numerous tiny shops and winding narrow streets of The Lanes, Brighton's famed old commercial district. Perhaps it was the dry weather or maybe because of the dwindling number of shopping days until Christmas but everywhere was packed. 

Not wishing to wear ourselves out too much before tomorrow's long flight to Singapore we re-energised with a coffee and a home made cupcake in one of the little cafes before catching the train back to our hotel.