Brighton on the Sea
We spent the final few days of our giant journey in Brighton, England because it was on the train line to our flight home out of Gatwick. Also, it was by the sea, and we had vaguely heard good things.
We arrived by train in Brighton without a place to stay, despite our decision to plan further ahead in the Netherlands. I have traveled in Great Britain quite a bit and the Tourist Information Centers (TICs) have always been taken good care of me. It was September in a tourist town -- I was sure we would be fine.
In Brighton, the train station and the TIC are not located that closely, so we wandered through the old town for a while before locating the TIC. Then we discovered that the Labour party 
was having its annual convention in Brighton later in the week, and places were getting full. We had two folks tell us there was no room in Brighton, but they kept getting pulled away. Finally a more experienced woman talked to us again about what we wanted to do, and she found us a great little bed and breakfast. Phew.
Brighton has clearly seen better days, but there is an interesting shopping district, boardwalk area, and very entertaining pier with another carousel. It was great fun, although we didn't ride the second carousel further down along the boardwalk. We had a day of lovely weather, which was particularly appreciated at the end of September.
We wandered about for a couple of days, and thought our visit was quite worthwhile, but I could understand why people would get tired of Brighton. I hope that the Labour party had a good time in Brighton, but more importantly that the nice folks we met running businesses all made some money.
As with the Netherlands, we found a great Thai restaurant redeeming otherwise standard local fare.
The other major sight in Brighton is the Royal Pavilion. This is a very odd palace from the early nineteenth century. The outside is an English fantasy about India and the inside is an imaginary China. I'm glad we paid to look inside -- it's hard to describe in words.
From Brighton, we took the train to Gatwick, and returned home to the real world. I boarded a train from Portland the day after we returned home to start the dMLIS program at University of Washington and left Ben to unpack and look for work.
