We took advantage of one of the massive heat waves bearing down on us, and did a day trip to Brighton. Brighton is about a couple of hours away from where we live and it’s famous for the Seven Sisters white clffs that are easily accessible from the city, its kitchy pier, and the Royal Pavilion – a monstrous (in my opinion) Regency era pavilion built by King George IV.
Because we are more outdoorsy as a family, we preferred to focus on the Seven Sisters walk, and any time left over would be devoted to the pier and the pavilion.
So, bright and early, we joined our friends and set off for Brighton. It was a bright and sunny day, very hot, and normally I would not have enjoyed a day outdoors in such weather. But the cliffs are windy, and it’s a few degrees cooler there, so as long as you have a hat and sunscreen, it’s actually better to go there on a super-hot day like we did.
As soon as we got off the train at Brighton, we picked up one of the local buses that go out to Seven Sisters. No need to book a tour or anything like that. As long as you’re prepared to walk, you can use the regular buses plying between the cities.
We crossed a number of villages before we reached our destination.
The Seven Sisters were visible for miles from the bus itself, so we were quite excited and pumped up when we got down, and the Seven Sisters walk did not let us down! Here are some photos.
I struggled a bit with the uphill sections and soon got left behind. K and Piglet were up ahead while the rest of us were in various stages, with me bringing up the rear. Once in a while, someone felt sorry for me and stopped, giving me company a little of the way until they got bored with my glacial pace and moved ahead 😄. This is a reminder that I really need to get my ass into shape.
To make it less obvious that I was struggling, I kept stopping to take pics and pretending I was appreciating the beauty of the place, when I was really stopping to catch my breath 😅.
The trick to hiking difficult elevations is to just keep on going till the end without stopping to sit. Once you take breaks to sit, it gets exponentially harder when you resume. Another trick is to stay hydrated, and the last is to just use trekking sticks to make sure your balance is fine. I know this in my head, I have trekked often before, but somehow I ended up making these rookie mistakes, and lagging behind.
Thankfully, my friends were more supportive than my husband 👿, and I had good company with Danny and Neel who encouraged me all the way.
We finally came to a bit of a downslope where I took the opportunity to dash off in front of everyone and be in front of others for a change.
I also took this moment when all of us were together to take a couple of group family photos.
At the end of the walk, there is a house converted to a hotel, café, and souvenir shops. We took a few moments to cool down with icecream before taking the stairs down from the ciff to the beach.
We then walked on back to the bus stop – another long walk up to the main road. This was a super long strenuous walking day.
We got off the bus at the Brighton Pier quite tired, but still eager to make the most of the day. The pier is a nice place to hang out, but we just restricted ourselves to a short walk around the place. None of us were in the mood for amusement park rides.
I would say that Brighton Pier is more of a must-visit for the views of the city and the sea from the pier more than any of the actual food or amusements.
By this time, we were utterly exhausted, and the sun just wouldn’t stop shining, so we started walking back to the railway station a little earlier than planned. We did do a couple of short detours – one to see the Royal Pavilion from outside, and two, to explore an interesting graffiti-filled wall I spotted.
The Royal Pavilion is stunning in a very bad way. I knew the architecture was a mish-mash of styles, but I didn’t expect it to be this much of a mish-mash. It looks like something out of an Oriental/Middle-eastern/Indian country. It’s the last thing I would expect to see in UK.
I am so glad we left the Royal Pavilion to the last. It was interesting to see as we were walking past it, but I don’t think we missed too much skipping this place. Maybe another time, we could devote more time to the Royal Pavilion and give it a chance to change my opinion about it.
And the last stop was in front of this graffiti wall. It’s crazy, I have now seen a number of graffitied walls in UK, but I can’t resist them still. They are all so bright and vivid, and always changing, it’s always a joy to walk past these walls.
And that’s it, that was our day in Brighton. It was a lovely day – completely different from how I imagined it. I’ve read a lot of books, and seen a lot of movies with the Seven Sisters and the pier as backdrops, but it was a completely new experience seeing them in the flesh.
An amazing day!
