Day 10-11

Day 10:

Nothing happened. One word. Homework.

Day 11:

Today was a lot of riding in the coach! But we saw a lot of really neat things! We rode a little over an hour or so to Brighton and went to George the IV’s Pavilion. Most of the time when I hear the world pavilion I think of picnic tables under a roof behind a stake center. A pavilion is more like a palace! It was incredible.

It was built during a time when there were a lot of English were going to India. They didn’t necessarily want to live there, but they wanted to bring back part of that culture with them. So on the outside the pavilion looks like a piece of India. It was kind of funny to see it in the middle of England. It had all kinds of Chinese and Indian decorations inside. My favorite was a chandelier that was held in the jaws of a giant dragon. They said that some of the guests to the pavilion were too afraid to sit under the chandelier. In King George’s time it was one of the first places that actually had plumbing in England. He had one room just for himself that had four different kinds of baths. It was a beautiful palace and had the most amazing decorations and furniture. One piece of furniture that I thought was really fun was a beeswax shield. A beeswax shield is this oval shaped piece of metal on top of pole that women would stand in front of when checking themselves out in the mirror over the fire so that the beeswax makeup wouldn’t melt off their face.

            There were many very famous people that came to the palace to visit. Rossini performed there once. (I love Rossini!)

            Later we went to the beach. It is the only time I have gone to the beach wearing two jackets, long pants, and rain boots. I was still freezing! I stood in the ocean with my rain boots for about five seconds before I got tired of it and went inside.

            After Brighton we went to Canterbury about two hours away. We went to the Canterbury Cathedral where the Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered. We could take pictures!! I was so excited we could actually take them and then…my camera died! It was very sad. We also got to go to Evensong at Canterbury which was wonderful! My favorite part was the boys choir. They were really quite good and they sang so high!

            For dinner tonight I went to Nando’s. It is a restaurant that has lots of meals with chicken in them. I got a Mediterranean salad that was seriously the best salad I have ever had! It had olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, paprika dressing, grilled chicken, and corn. And then I had hazelnut gelato. A perfect ending to the day!