St Albans to Brighton via London

We leave St Albans late morning and head for central London to meet up with Cara, my daughter and Luke (together with Lydia), Jan's youngest son. Cara has booked for us to eat lunch at Yauatcha in Soho. Excellent chinese food in a very modern setting. The dim sum was excellent, so much so that we asked if we could have the table for longer (they usually only have one and a half hour sittings) then took the menu again and ordered a whole lot more food. Highly recommended.

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London still has a huge buzz for us both and the streets are teeming with people. At times a few too many for us simple country folk! Jan still has enough energy for more retail therapy so we hit Muji, a great store where Jan buys lots of small Christmas presents, Mac, and John Lewis again before we get into the car for the drive south, through London, to Brighton (our fourth bed). The drive was slow and stressful and we eventually arrived at 20.30. Not knowing what we had already eaten, James (my son with whom we are staying) booked us into a Thai restaurant, er yum. Having said that we ate well.

I'm not too sure what I feel about Brighton. If the yobbish behaviour that we saw, as we walked to the restaurant, is anything to go by, then it is difficult to think very highly. It is without doubt an attractive town and there are lots of good things to see but at the same time it makes me feel uneasy especially as we walk downtown. As Jan pointed out, it is probably no different to many town centres around the country, but that only hightens my dismay. Anyway we left the revellers to it and beat a hasty retreat to bed.