Left our housesit in Croydon and trained to Worthing. Lovely day until we got off the train and the rain started.
Dropped our bags at the AirBnB then went to visit Kim’s cousin Celia and her partner Chris, and two daughters Ruth and Charlotte. Our host kindly drove us there because of the weather. Had a really nice afternoon eating and catching up on family news, time flew and before we knew it was 7pm!
The next day Celia and Chris called round and we walked to the waterfront and caught a bus to Brighton. It was a bit of a damp day, We wandered round town, past the Royal Pavilion (which we returned to visit at a later date) and through The Lanes – heaps of jewellery shops – and had a nice pub lunch. Caught the bus back to Worthing as the weather slowly cleared.
On Tuesday Celia and Chris picked us up and we drove to Chichester. Checked out the lovely old town, beautiful Cathedral and had a spot of lunch.
Thursday saw Sally and Kim back on the old 700 bus to Brighton to check out the Royal Pavilion, What an amazing place. It has Indian elements on the outside and Chinese on the inside. Built by George IV but he had not visited either country.
George IV was all about having a good time and the Pavilion was basically a pleasure palace. It took him 40 years to build and is the only British royal palace not owned by the state.
George loved to impress, and as you go through the palace each room gets progressively more and more lavish!
He even had a say in the design of the kitchens and, apparently, would even have his guests to dine there from time to time
Dragons and chandeliers played a huge part in the interior design, as did lots of rich colour and bold designs
The rooms were ornately furnished with an Indian theme with Oriental overtones.
During the war the Pavilion was used as a hospital for recovering Indian soldiers, but expanded to all soldiers after 1916.
This Pavilion is definitely worth a visit, it cost a fortune to build back in the day (approx $40M NZD in todays money) and was the summer escape for the Prince of Wales. He had never visited Indian or the Orient but was fascinated by them.
Traveling Further 