Brighton

We drove for 3 hours along various numbered roads through hundreds of roundabouts to Brighton. We are staying in a very trendy boutique hotel about 100 metres from the beach and about 400 metres east of Brighton Pier. As you can see from the pics we brought our weather with us though still a bit chilly. We played the arcade machines and ate fish and chips. Then Lyn did retail therapy in "the lanes" and we saw the improbable Brighton Pavilion from the outside. Weather is supposed to be closing in tomorrow so we will tour the inside before we leave in the morning.

Off the cuff we decided that the very ornate Theatre Royal was a must - so we bought tickets to see a musical there tonight called Carnaby Street. I didn't expect to be impressed by Brighton - but I am. It is very regency. It is, from what we saw today, also the gay capital of England - unless there is a convention on or something. From the advertising in the shop windows you would think that every second shop sells brightly-coloured men's underpants. Then you realize - it doesn't matter what they are selling - they just like big pictures of buff guys in brightly-coloured briefs. (Been thinking my outfits are a bit dull...)  

We had a great time at Carnaby Street - a musical which is basically an excuse to perform music from the 60s. This didn't prevent it being enormous fun for everyone. Nobody expects musicals to boast of plot or character development. A significant part of the audience was our age, and most of the rest had hurried home from a hard day at National Trust properties or running steam railways.