Day Trip Three: Brighton

Our final day trip of the semester was to Brighton, a resort town on the south coast of England. The weather was less than ideal for a trip to the beach - in fact it started snowing at some point - but the students actually really loved it. In fact, I think the students enjoyed it most of all our day trips. For one thing, our students are from Iowa and haven't had many opportunities to see the beach. For another, while the shopping and dining areas in Cambridge and Salisbury were targeted at people my age, the shopping and dining in Brighton was definitely more up the twenty-something alley. 

The town features a pier that was reminiscent of Cape Cod or the Jersey Shore. For Michiganders like me, a lot of this is familiar, but for these land-locked students it was pretty cool. The beaches are very rocky, and the students all took home a souvenir in the form of a super-smooth rock. Our very own Zizzy found herself a rock that had "FUCK" written on it, and what are the odds? 

The first part of the day was a tour of the Royal Pavilion, an oriental-style palace built by King George IV in the 19th century. No one has lived there for many years, which means we could take photographs, which I did. 

The walls, carpet and furniture from the original pavilion is all intact, and I was reminded for obvious reasons of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The chandeliers were no joke. As you can see, this one looks like lotus flowers. The entire design of the pavilion, inside and out is Asian in theme, which is weird. At this time, Orientalism was in full swing, and everyone wanted to wear Asian or Arabic flourishes in their outfits or have Asian touches their homes. 

Yet another lotus chandelier with Chinese figures included.

Wider view with clock.

A dragon (and a snake.) There were SO many dragons...the Chinese kind of course.

Of course I had to take one of the kitchen. Many of the pots and other items were the originals.

The dining room (with more dragons.) One thing that I appreciated in the placards that guided you through the palace  was a blurb on servants and the role they played. In certain areas, mostly long hallways, there was this blue painted Dutch tile along the walls. That signaled it was a servant area. Servants in that society were kept invisible, which was a theme I kept coming back to in all my classes, appropriately enough.

A quote from someone on the placards: "Behind all the staterooms there's this secret world of the servants...(The tiles) formed a sort of seamless link from one end of the building to the other so that George would never have to see the servants."

The Royal Pavilion exterior, which is more Indian in theme than Chinese, while most of the inside was Chinese. The garden outside was lovely too, but probably lovelier in May.