Brighton Beaches

Last weekend we took a train to the southern coast of England - Brighton to be exact (well Worthing specifically - 5 miles west of Brighton). The train ride was relaxing; the English countryside is beautiful - green rolling hills with small villages tucked in safe and sound. We stopped at Worthing as we had booked a B&B there for Friday night. We walk a few blocks and are immediately face-to-face with the beach! Every time I see the ocean, it's like going home. And being a Pisces, water is my natural habitat. We take a quick right and our B&B is right across the street from the beach. We walk into a 3 floor flat (not sure of the right lingo here) and our lovely hostess, Pandora, greets us. She gives us a room on the first floor and tells us she'll make us a proper English breakfast at 9:15 the next morning. Lovely. The whole place, including our room, is decorated in ocean garb; pictures of ocean waves, small wooden boats on the dresser, fish pictures, etc. And to go along with it was, of course, the smell of the sea. Ahh.....

(sidebar - this is Beth - the name of my game is cheap. Most of the time this doesn't work out/Paris/ but this time I hit the nail on the head!)

We go to find some dinner and, as Pandora directed, we head west into Worthing. There is a small pier here and a lot of restaurants; however, they all seems to be closed. Now, it's only 8pm on a Friday night - just the start of the dinner rush in London - but here is seems to be completely quiet. Oh well - we find a local fish and chips place and make ourselves at home. We had been eating so well and working out that we decided to give ourselves a treat. Two ciders, two cheeseburgers with chips (fries) and after an hour of chatting, we'd let it all settle enough to have dessert. We left the restaurant around 10:30pm and strolled along the beach back to our B&B. It was the most perfect night (you can see some pics on fb); it was chilly, but not too cold and the ocean was providing a constant wave....the sound was so soothing.

So, back to our room and we get ready for bed. JaNae is slightly annoyed because the sheets are damp. This reminds me of home - I love it! If you've ever stayed near the water and the humidity is more than 40%, then you know what it feels like to sleep in a damp, cool bed. Every night of my life that I've slept at our cabin in Okoboji, it's felt just like this. The smell of the ocean and the damp sheets were my idea of a perfect vacation!

Anywho....the next morning, Pandora was right; she made us the most excellent English breakfast ever! Toast and jam, eggs, and thick cut bacon. Now, for you people in the states, this is not your normal kind of bacon. This is thick cut, barely any fat kind of bacon. It is amazing!!!!

Pandora - thank you for making us feel right at home in your place. We will be staying at the Marina Guest House in Worthing each time we're close!

So - it's 10am and we are off to the beach! Now, Worthing is only 5 miles from Brighton; at a slow 20 minutes a mile, we could easily be there in an hour....right? NO! We start off at our B&B and walk about 20 minutes; by this time we are getting warm and just want to get into the water - this is, after all, what we came to do! We set out a towel, get rid of the close and UGH.....what is that!?!? Ice water???? OMG - it was so cold! And, I'm used to diving in the water off a boat - there is no diving here! Janae teaches me that as the waves roll up, I need to walk in deeper. Your feet, legs, etc. are already wet when the wave hits you, so just keep moving in. And sure enough, it only takes about 10 minutes to get in......and take a nice swim! OK - that was refreshing. Janae only lets me sit on the beach for about 5 minutes before we pack up and move on. She is on a mission - we are going to Brighton; that is where everything is going on!

Alright - back to walking along the beach (shell beach by the way, not sand). We walk for at least another hour - no Brighton pier in sight....might as well stop at another beach and take a dip. We do just that. By now it's about 2pm and we need to eat some lunch. So we head into Shoreham and grab a pizza (which was excellent). Alright - we can only have another mile or so to go.....on the road again.....on the road again. So - another hour goes by and we hit an inlet. There is no way to get across this, so we end up back-tracking to the exact place we ate lunch - only now it's 4pm!!!! This part of the trip was very frustrating......so I'm not expanding on it. Anyway, we find a bus that will take us to Brighton - 5 miles my butt!!!! There is NO WAY we could have walked that in an hour - or even jogged it in an hour!

Ah - Brighton....holy cow - the beach is PACKED!!! There are people as far as the eye can see!!!! But, it was pretty cool and the people watching was REALLY GOOD! There are some scary people out there; we saw the real live version of Deuce Bigalo - WOW! And, we took one last dip before catching the 8:30 train back to London.

We decided that Brighton was a bit too packed for us - we will certainly go back, but will stay in Worthing. The B&B was great and the beach was close to empty. We highly recommend this trip.

The shell beaches are a bit painful on the feet though - we are on a mission to find a sandy beach. Next mission - surfing lessons in Wales where the sandy beaches are plentiful!