Day 11: ABC's

Saturday our group went on Another day trip.... to the beach!  When I think beach I think sun and warmth, nice sandy beaches, surfing, etc.  Well my thoughts changed when we arrived at Brighton.  I thought maybe I'd see the regiments when we got there (Pride & Prejudice reference) but alas they were not.  Guess I'll have to find my Wickham somewhere else. ;)  


I learned that during Jane Austen's time, King George IV was the regent king.  He reigned in his father's place as king because his father, George III (who we gained our independence from) went a little lot of crazy.  This is known as the Regency Period.  During this period, Brighton was the "happening" place to be.  The Regent King built his pleasure palace out at this happening spot and it is called Brighton Pavilion.  

We stopped here to tour and it was so different from anything I've ever seen before.  At that time, there was a fascination with the exotic and so this palace with a Chinese influence (even though none of the architects had ever been to China).  From the time you see it on the outside until you reach the end of the tour at the gift shop, you feel like you are in a lavish, expensive, and elegant Chinese Palace.  They wouldn't let me take any pictures inside but it is seriously decadent.  Exotic flair is everywhere including gold, dragons, murals, bamboo, lotus flowers, etc.  The Banqueting Hall was my favorite part because everywhere I looked, there were small details that made it feel exotic.  This palace was near the sea and so in the summers it was stifling hot, they ate lavishly, dined lavishly, danced the night away and it was made to feel sensual.  King Henry IV most definitely lived the good life here.  I was happy to hear that after she became Queen, Victoria sold the palace to the city of Brighton because it was to extravagant for her tastes.


After leaving the Pavilion, we had a free hour in Brighton.  We all headed straight to the beach!  This beach consisted of very small rocks (name that movie), cold water, and cold wind.  They said it was colder on Saturday than it was on Christmas day- what?!  Yet... it was still awesome!  I stood in the English Channel!  

Along the beach was also Brighton Pier that I'm sure would be a fun place to spend time at in the summer.  There were carnival games, rides, a ferris wheel, carnival food, and all that good stuff.  We explored everything on the boardwalk for a bit and I got a yummy savory crepe for lunch.  The entire atmosphere was just so FUN!  It made me want to visit Santa Monica Pier sometime.

Our Coach then took us to a place I have heard about a lot and is quite famous... Canterbury Cathedral!  We read about Chaucer and his work, Canterbury Tales, in our English class here and so it was fun to make our own "pilgrimage" to the same place that hundreds of thousands of people have trekked before.  We saw where Saint (formerly Archbishop) Thomas Becket was murdered.  This is one of the reasons why Canterbury was such a large place for pilgrimage, including the fact that it is the capital for the Anglican church.  The town is surrounded by tons and tons of shops and then all of a sudden... boom!  There's the church.  We listened to Evensong here by a choir of young boys and also older men.  I got chills because their voices were beautiful and the acoustics of the Cathedral were absolutely amazing!  That was my favorite part of the entire trip.

The stairs are dented in after hundreds of years of pilgrims crawling on their hands and knees up to the tomb of Thomas Beckett.  His bones are no longer there because Henry VIII wanted to destroy the cult surrounding him.  The dents in the stairs were so impressive to me because I could feel the emotion and dedication of pilgrims of the past and present.

Large, beautiful stained glass.  To give you an idea of the proportions, my head barely comes up to the bottom of these windows.

At night, I went out for Indian food for dinner and got Curry.  I'm not a huge Indian food fan but this is the best I'd had.  I got a butter chicken curry that was a little bit spicy along with garlic naan.  It was fun to go out of my comfort zone and try something that I wouldn't normally get! 


Mom and Ashlyn- While in Canterbury I walked into this store that Whitney told me about called Cath Kidston.  Look it up online because you would love it!  I think I'm going to buy you something from here because everything is so cute, so if you want anything in particular let me know. :)