The Tempest

Dave and I hung around the house for most of yesterday morning. We couldn't check into our hotel in Brighton until 3 p.m., so I didn't see much sense in getting there too early. I walked the dog and did some minor cleaning.

After we finally packed, got the dog organized and headed out the door, we decided to have lunch at the new Chipotle that's opened around the corner from our flat. And it's a good thing, too, because we realized we'd forgotten Olga's anti-inflammatory medicine and her roll of dog poo bags! I headed back to our flat and grabbed them. As I told Dave, going to lunch was like a dress rehearsal for leaving town.

We caught the train in West Hampstead and an hour and a half later, got to Brighton in positively dismal weather -- driving, spattery rain and gusts that would collapse an umbrella. We walked from the train station to our hotel and when we turned the corner onto the seafront promenade we were hit with a wall of wind that made Olga stop in her tracks. She was like, "Where am I?!"

Fortunately our hotel was right there, so we slipped inside and soon made ourselves comfortable in our oceanfront room. Can you see the waves out the window? Crazy.

In fact, the wind and rain got so bad that it began leaking into the room -- I heard a drip-dripping sound and soon realized water was coming in around the window frame! It wasn't a lot, though, and we didn't worry about it. We had a gin & tonic instead.

Yesterday evening we headed down to the hotel bar and discovered major leakage there -- a pan was set out on a table in the corner to collect water dripping from the ceiling, and some of the furniture and floors were spattered with water. This is supposedly a four-star hotel -- at least according to Google Maps, and I'm not sure whose scale they use -- but it definitely has a problem with water intrusion. It's a Victorian building so maybe that's not surprising.

We were going to eat in the hotel, but apparently they were having some sort of function -- Dave saw people swanning around in tuxedoes and gowns -- so we walked down the street to a pub called The Walrus. Which makes me think of the Beatles -- goo goo ga joob. I had an overdone burger and then we came back and went to sleep and I'm happy to say that while the window may be drippy, the bed is fantastic.

This was the beach at dawn. Today promises better weather. You can see the pier and the Brighton i360, a sort of donut-on-a-stick that contains a rotating cocktail bar with supposedly amazing views. Olga seemed genuinely perplexed by all the pebbles!