Down By the Sea

 The last week was an absolute whirlwind, as my parents and brother and sister-in-law were visiting so we were touring all around London and beyond.  I finally got to see The British Museum, The British Library - where I saw the Golden Haggadah which I studied in a class!! -, The Tower of London, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Covent Gardens, Hampton Court, Notting Hill, Portabello Road Market, Windsor Castle, and finally, my first West End show, Billy Elliot the Musical!!! Not to mention, I was also eating absolutely fabulous food this whole time and indulging myself in desserts of which I've been deprived and craving.  I think the best way to summarize all this is in a few pictures:

 Above is the White Tower, main living center within the Tower of London; And THE ROSETTA STONE at the British Museum.

 The Crown Jewels were at the Tower of London, and we couldn't take pictures of them directly, so this is the best I can give you of the best thing there.  On the right is Trafalgar Square, from the stairs of The National Gallery.

 This is Covent Garden Piazza, the general area which inspired Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.  We ate at Jamie Oliver's restaurant "Union Jack" here. Very good.

 The Tudor facade of Hampton Court Palace, a favorite summer home of Henry the VIII.

 Henry the VIII and Anne Boleyn!! Henry actually spoke to me!

 The back side of Hampton Court is in the Georgian style, added onto by King William and Queen Mary. On the right is me at Portabello Road!

 This is the bookshop in Notting Hill that inspired the one in the movie.  On the right is a view of part of Windsor Castle (it's far too large to capture all of it.)

Another view of Windsor, and the Victoria Palace Theatre!!

 Wednesday morning my family had all gone and I was headed off to Brighton with Carolyn and Katie for a lovely day trip to the English seaside!  I was really excited for this trip because Brighton is where Lydia Bennet in Pride and Prejudice goes to stay with the militia and then runs away from with Mr. Wickham.  Unfortunately, I did not see Miss Bennet, Mr. Wickham, or any militia, but now understand why they all wanted to go there so badly!  The town itself is adorable; the buildings are excellent examples of Georgian and Regency architecture.  The sea was absolutely beautiful.  The color of the water was incredible, so bright and an amazing blue-green hue.  The interesting part was that the beach itself is rocks not sand, which made taking of my shoes and socks a little painful, but so worth it as I can say I've stuck my feet in the water on this side of the Atlantic! I took some rocks and a shell with me for good measure. :)  There was a little boy on the beach with us who was instructing us on how to throw rocks properly into the water.  It was very cute.  We stopped to have ice cream for lunch at Scoop and Crumb, which was delicious! I got Plum Crumble and Heavenly honeycomb, both of which were amazing.  Ice Cream parlors are hard to come by in London, so we were really excited by this, and then noticed many more throughout the day! Apparently, in England, if one wants good ice cream, one must go to the beach!

We strolled along the boardwalk and found many cute little shops that were mainly handmade products, which was really neat.  I got my brother David his Christmas present here, and I am very excited to give it to him!  We headed towards The Brighton Pier which is bustling with amusement rides and food stalls.  We went on the Horror Hotel ride, which was not the best Haunted House ride I've ever been on, as Knoebels holds that title, but it was still fun.  The pier and boardwalk here are so charming.  The green of the lamposts and railings matches the color of the ocean.  The white painted ironwork was beautiful and adorable. Brighton really manages to offer a lot to do and see that it feels like a city but has the perfect balance of small town charm.  It's actually rather perfect in general.

Brighton is also considered the "gay capital of England."  Kemptown is the gay district, I suppose, and is full of vibrant shops and colors!  Down every little side street are lines of beautiful regency townhouses pulling one's line of vision to the water, and here, to the Ferris Wheel!

 After walking around Kemptown we went to the Royal Pavilion, which was a palace home of King George IV, formerly Prince Regent, after whom the Regency era is named!  The entire palace, inside and out, is done in an Asian motif which displayed wealth and power, although the Prince/King himself nor any of the designers had ever been to China or the East!  We couldn't take pictures inside but it was absolutely incredible and worth the trip in itself.  The banquet hall had the most amazing chandeliers I have ever seen.  The main one was descending from the claws of a dragon and each little lamp was lotus flowers coming out of little dragons' mouths.  They said that when it was gaslighting this made it look like flames coming out of the mouths.  This chandelier weighs ONE TON!!  Many guests didn't enjoy eating in this room because the dragons were so intimidating.  The music room had both dragons and snakes in the ornate decor.  This room also has experienced the most damage, including a fire and a tree or something falling through the ceiling.  Chinese conservators and visitors claim this is because it is taboo to put dragons and snakes together so the room is cursed.  Much of the wallpaper and furniture in the palace is original, which is pretty awesome. 

 As we were wandering up the stairs to the second floor of the pavilion, we saw a sign for the Royal Pavilion Tea Room, so we decided to stop in for our first high tea experience, at a palace no less!  Katie and I had the Luxury Tea for Two, which came with a pot of English Breakfast Tea, cucumber sandwiches, smoked salmon sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and two dessert pieces, which were my least favorite part, to be honest - the rest was great!  We were overlooking the palace gardens which were beautiful and as it was around two in the afternoon, the sunlight was streaming perfectly through the trees and bushes.  It was quite a succesful first tea party experience. :)

 After tea and finishing up at the Royal Pavilion we went shopping in The Lanes district, whose name describes the area perfectly as lane after lane, street upon street, is filled with shops.  No matter what way one looks, down whatever alley, there's always more!! It was really cute and I saw a lot of expensive clothing that I wanted to buy but didn't, including this adorable headband that had roses on it with a net over them that I was in love with, but it was 35 pounds, and I just couldn't justify that.  However, I did buy a hat to wear this winter for just 16 pounds!! I'm really excited to get a lot of use out of it!  I was so tempted to buy a really unique tea party hat but went for the more useful structured winter hat. I don't have a picture of it yet, but I'm sure at some point it'll appear in one on my head!

 Walking up the street we stumbled across a paint-your-own-pottery place and couldn't resist stopping in.  We had a lot of time left in the evening and our feet were tired of walking into shops we couldn't afford, so this was a great option.  I decided to do a teapot, which is not only very British but also something I don't have and need.  I really tested my skills and dared to paint the Union Flag; generally I only manage horizontal stripes, so this was quite a change for me!  I'm quite proud of my little tea pot. :)  While we were there, a young man came in and inquired if this would be a good place to bring a girl on a date; he wanted to make sure it wasn't just for little kids.  Reader, there were no small children in this establishment: Everyone was twenty or older.  We all instantly fell in love with this man that would be willing to come paint pottery with a girl on a date.  He booked a spot for Saturday, and I hope it goes well for him. :)  After we finished up our masterpieces we headed out into the cold in search of a quick dinner before we had to catch the train home.  We went to a little Thai restaurant which was really yummy.  I hadn't had pad thai in a really long time so it was great to have it!  The dinner took a lot less time than we expected though, and we got to the train station over a half hour early, so then we went to a nearby pub to sit in the warmth and Carolyn got a Bakewell tart.  We had no idea what this tart was; it tasted like a hybrid of cheesecake and spongcake...in a really hard pie shell.  But, I have looked it up since, and it is in fact sponge cake! Here is a recipe I found, if anyone is curious: http://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/c/classic_bakewell_tart.html. 

We finally caught our train back, took the tube, and at long last were finally home!! I slept very well satisfied with the day's events. :)  By the bye, NO GRAVEYARDS IN BRIGHTON.  Well, not that I saw.  Ruined my streak ;)  Anyway, thanks for reading; until next time!