Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Castle, Trip to Brighton

Today, we started off with the Vans (yep, the return of Tiddles and Randall) to go see Brighton, a coastal city that’s about a 2 and a half hour drive away from harlow.  We went to visit Bodiam Castle, a heritage site maintained by the National Trust here in England. The castle was quite impressive and all encompassing; with the drawbridge, the moat and the corner towers to complete our expectations of the picture-esque castle. I went with Sarahdactyl on this visit and she had a wonderful time getting in all the rooms and nooks and crannies of the old place.

afterwards came time for tea in the gift shop area. appropriate for Britain, yes?

Delaware Pavillion was next, a stop gerard usually doesn't make for most trips. we were sure happy to be there, as a temporary exhibition of Joseph Beuy’s work was on display there. even the Fat chair was in this show! it was quite the comprehensive and even interactive show, once you factor in the playful message activity made for the show in the above floors. 

After that, we then were off to Brighton! Brighton is a small seaside town on the east coast of britian. It’s known to be, not only a former touristy seaside town, but the gay capital of Britian. in fact, UK producer-djing team Fremasons hails from Brighton (intereting thing to learn after the fact of me buying their latest album Shakedown 2 from an independent record store there). 

Our main stop within brighton was for the Royal Pavilion, owned and designed by prince of wales, George IV. Here, the prince was completely outlandish to the usual style meant for royalty and went for the exoticism of Chinese and indian-inspired motifs and themes throughout the entire palace. the palace didn’t meet very many royal standards, but this did not stop the prince from reaching a rather glorious vision. also, it was interesting to learn that the palace was only meant to last a few decades, but is slowly getting to it’s 200th year as a palace to be bewildered by.

after this, we met down by the brighton peir, which had a fun on it’s own sorts. not to mention it’s underlying beach, upon which some of the other students took advantage (despite the cold) and went swimming to their heart’s content. here's jill and kyle being a convincing Jack and Kylie.

back in the vans we were, sooner rather than later. Harlow was 2 and a half hours away and we all needed to get home. But there was still and sense that brighton might just be  great place to stay for a few nights. (hint, gerard: i’m sure you could mutter something significant to talk about for a few days :P)

haha