We arrive as preliminary last destination in England, in Brighton. First, we have to find a parking place for our Ben. As so often in European cities, this is not so easy. Many of the parking lots we approach turn out to be parking garages and underground garages, where we can’t find a place because of our height. A little outside of the city center near the Preston Park it works out, nevertheless. From here we walk comfortably to the center in 20 minutes. Already the walk is a little highlight for us, we pass murals and the Brighton Open Market.

The North Laine & The Lanes

In the center we are interested in the two quarters The Lanes and The North Laine. These are more or less narrow streets with countless cafes and stores. Here you can find real bijous, small handicraft stores selling beautiful things, clothing stores with a special style, but also bigger chain stores are represented in a small scale. Here we can stroll for a long time and treat ourselves to a coffee with a snack in between. We can recommend this neighborhood to stay!

Beach promenade

We continue to the beach promenade of Brighton. The city is famous for its long sandy beach and the adjacent promenade. In summer this is probably a huge party area with clubs directly on the beach, restaurants and probably many bathers. In winter, when we visited, it was rather quiet, with a few small stores and restaurants open. It suits us, although a jump into the cool water in summer is at least as much fun.

Brighton Pier Bandstand

A bit outside the center of the boardwalk is the Brighton Pier Bandstand. Because of the fine details and as well because of the history behind it, we take a look at this bandstand. It is a round Victorian pavilion, open on all sides, which has been restored to its original state. Concerts and weddings can be held here. It can be reserved for such events through the city.

Not far from the bandstand, the i360 viewing platform can’t be missed. It is a cabin which is driven from the beach into the sky and from where there is a superb view over the city, the beach and the sea. We decide against a quite expensive ride into the sky, but also purely the sight of it is not bad. A special feature is that the floor is mirrored against the bottom and so the beach is reflected distortedly on the cabin.

Brighton Palace Pier

After the forerunner of the Brighton Palace Pier, the Brighton West Pier has been left to the forces of nature for some time, we visit today’s counterpart. The Brighton Palace Pier is a large pier, which leads from the beach out to sea on a steel construction. It is probably more a kind of amusement park without entrance fee. Well, if we are already in Brighton, we don’t want to miss this impression. So we walk up to the small roller coasters at the far end and back again. Kind of surreal, but why not. With that, Brighton has a year-round amusement park right over the water.

Royal Pavilion

The Royal Pavilion is a royal summer residence built by George IV between 1815 and 1823. In 1850, the palace was sold to the city of Brighton and has seen quite a bit of use to this day. For example, it was a meeting place or a hospital for wounded soldiers from India and the West Indies during the First World War. After the Second World War, the palace was extensively renovated and opened to the public as a museum. From the outside, the palace with its numerous domes is reminiscent of oriental architecture, inside everything is kept in a pseudo-Chinese style. Pseudo because it was built according to the idea of the Western designers, how they imagined China. However, none of them has ever been to China.
Unfortunately, when we visit, half of the palace is scaffolded for renovation work and the other half is blocked by the pre-Christmas ice rink for skating. So, we don’t see very much of the magnificent facade. Mimi, however, takes a tour of the Royal Pavilion inside and is enchanted by all the pageantry.

April – September; 9.30 – 17.45
October – March; 10.00 – 17.15
Last entry 3/4hrs earlier each closing time!
Price; £17/adult, £10.50/child

It was nice in Great Britain

We like to take so many great impressions with us and thus end our round trip through the whole of Great Britain. We liked different areas of the English island extraordinarily well. Be it the Scottish Highlands with their barren landscapes, the old university towns with their many historic campuses or the rocky cliffs and limestone coasts.

For camper travelers like us, an additional plus point is that especially in Scotland wild overnight stays in the car are basically possible anywhere. But also everywhere else, if you behave a bit discreet, we never got a problem with it. We saw many campers and vans, also many Brits themselves who were on the road like ourselves. On the island, the culture is very relaxed in this regard – Great Britain, gladly again!

Crossing to France

Since we spent a lot of time in the UK – longer than planned it is now already the beginning of December and it is accordingly cold and wet. Our bigger goal is to sail south in Europe very quickly. Therefore, we do not sail back via Calais but directly from nearby Newhaven to Dieppe. With that we save a considerable part of the car ride towards the south in France.