Back in Brighton

As I write this, we’re on the train to Brighton. We have been closely following the Covid virus news from Perth, where it seems it's becoming a bigger and bigger issue. At this stage, we noticed the Brits were starting to stockpile the toilet roll, but otherwise still fairly oblivious. So, we made the decision to bring our flights home, forward by one week, as more and more borders are closing. We’ll see what happens. In the mean time, Brighton here we come.

We had another Airbnb apartment (well studio actually) in a gorgeous area of Brighton, in a four story Georgian house. Our room was again really cosy. We had a big window with a view of a very old and beautiful church. An excellent shower and again, very good heating.  We were eventually succesful in changing our flights, so we now have five nights in Brighton and then will go directly to Heathrow to fly home.  

View from our apartment window

Some of the beautiful Georgian buildings in Brighton

We both really love Brighton and we have quite a bit of history there. Richie and I went there a few times in our early wild romantic days (these days are still romantic but not very wild, thankfully) and a young Richie used to go there with his mates, directly from work on a Friday and hit the local pubs.

It was great to be in the fresh air and wide streets of Brighton, after crowded London. We were also glad to get away from the underground (due to the virus) for a while.

We spent most of our days walking around Brighton, in fact we averaged about 10 kms a day. We spent quite a bit of time on Brighton Pier. The first time we visited it was midweek and cold and it was deadly quiet and a bit sad looking. 

Sunny Brighton Pier

The second visit was on a sunny Saturday and bam! suddenly it was jumping - all the rides were going, people were lazing around in deck chairs, kids were screaming and fairy floss was being consumed by the bucket load. 

Some of the rides on Brighton Pier

Not quite as good as the BMW but close

Is that sunshine, biting my eyes?

Giant Brighton seagull, enjoying the water slide

A bit of sun and the Poms are out in droves, bless them

I love Brighton Pier, it is like a blast from my childhood when Willy used to drive us to the seaside for a day out. Buckets and spades, butterfly nets and shiny pinwheels, cockles and winkles, sticks of rock -  somehow it's reassuring to see the things of your childhood still being enjoyed. However, I didn't see peaches and Angel Delight on the local menus, so I guess somethings have moved on. 

We visited a few second hand shops and I found a new top and a funky pink beanie to replace the one I lost in Greenwich. It turned out to be for children aged 7-10 years - but as they say, if the cap fits.......... 

Richie found some nice clothes in Primark (which I think is the English Target) don’t tell Simone.

We had some more great pub lunches, found a delicious pie shop in the Brighton Lanes and spent many an hour just wandering and getting lost in the lanes, at our leisure.

One of the entrances to the Lanes

Yes another fabulous pub lunch

Afternoon tea and cakies, so civilised

We spent our second last day, hiring a very attractive BMW and Richie drove us to Hastings, so we could have lunch with George and Maggie. We wanted to stop at Eastbourne on the way but when we reached Eastbourne there was not a parking spot to be found, so we headed directly to Hastings. 

We had another great pub lunch, this time the pub was in a field of sheep, very rural. We saw George’s lovely renovated bungalow and caught up with the youngest Reidy brother, Paul. Paul was very keen to regale us with his Australian travels from 20 years ago, I think seeing us, gave him an opportunity to relive his salad days!

Our hire car, not too shabby

Eastbourne Pier, looked very inviting, if only we could park the car...

On our return to Brighton we had the same parking issues, as Eastbourne and after driving around for a good twenty minutes, we ended parking along the waterfront, about fifteen minutes walk from our accomodation. The following morning we gave ourselves a little fright when we couldn’t find the car, we walked up and down the front several times before we located it - but all ended well.

Even though I really enjoyed London, it was so nice to be beside the seaside and breathe the crisp sea air and hear the seagulls. Brighton seagulls are HUGE and my enduring memory of Brighton will be the haunting cry of the gulls - all very scenic and romantic.

The Grand Hotel Brighton

Brighton Palace

Brighton is an easy town to walk around, even though you can get lost in the Lanes, its all good fun. There was quite a bit of groovy artwork and our end of Brighton was rather elegant. Whilst we had the car, we drove to the outer suburbs and found it was just like any other burb in England. 

The Yeti at the old pier, that burnt down many a year ago

Images of Brighton street art

So now, as I write this,  we are back on the plane, travelling  home. We stocked up on Panadol, a bit of toilet roll (only 4 rolls, we were very restrained) tea, coffee and chocolate biscuits for our two weeks of self isolation. We had planned to self isolate anyway but a few days ago the Australian government made it mandatory. We had a painfree journey home. Both of us had been been expecting a bit of a bun fight. However, we managed to catch an early train from Brighton to Victoria. There we picked up the Piccadily line and it was EMPTY when we got on! The check-in process at Heathrow was a bit slow but everything else was smooth as could be. 

An empty Piccadily Line train, not something you see every day

The journey home, the world has changed since we left Perth

catching up on the blog

So I think this might be our last holiday outside of Australia of the foreseeable future, at least until this Covid issue is cleared up.  Note to self next time - leave the cupboards full of food. The whole journey home was surprisingly painless. The first flight, we had a spare seat between us and the second flight, Doha to Perth, we sat at the back of the plane and had a row of seats each, so we both were able to spread out and sleep. 

The service on Qatar airways was really good on this last flight. We were the only flight to land at Perth Airport, we were given one sheet of information regarding quarantine, other than that it was business as usual. Our plane landed at 6pm and we walked in our front door at 7pm.

Was great to see Fatty again, as always.  We have now been home a week and the whole world has changed. Most countries in the world have closed their borders. WA has just closed our borders to the other states. Everyone is advised to stay home as much as possible and everything not essential has closed down.  Many tour companies, airlines, hotels etc are not expected to survive this shut down. So our next travels may be a whole different ball game. Reminds me of the old Chinese curse "may you be born in interesting times". Interesting indeed. 

Yodi gripping on for dear life, don't leave me again!