Merry X’mas special in Brighton

December is full of Christmas ambience; signs of the season begin with Black Friday Ads online and stores on the high street. And the ‘Black Friday Weekend’ is totally nothing to do with 'Friday the 13th', which is considered an unlucky day. Conversely, ‘Black Friday Weekend’ is the busiest shopping day of the year to prepare for Christmas gifts.

before the 'Church square' (a shopping mall)

Clock Tower

Although the biggest discount is right after Christmas, you have to, and all the atmosphere push you to go shopping for your friends and family members before the coming of joyful Christmas. 

Smarter shoppers already decorated their stores with Christmas wreaths and other lovely items. The high street (North street) in Brighton is also lighted up for everyone to enjoy shopping in the city centre.

Restaurants providing mulled wine in this season always gather many people to have a pint, or more. So stunning as to forget the chilly winter! As I know, Brighton's last snow happened four years ago, and this year it does'nt seems to  snow, so how about let the window show you a white X'mas world!

In Brighton City centre, the Royal Pavilion Ice Rink is open to the public from Nov 5th, 2016– Jan 15th, 2017 (I will introduce this palace later, for this time, it is only about X’mas!)

The most wonderful Christmas lights in London will be coming soon in my next blog!

Rottingdean Special - The Smugglers

Rottingdean Special - The Smugglers

Walking is one of the best ways to know the surroundings you live. And that is why I become the “Guided Walking Tours in Brighton and Sussex” member.

This local walking club is led by Nick Richmond, who guides us to stroll around specific spots in Brighton and Sussex with plentiful, various and historical stories or legends. It is also a good way to meet up with local people and engage in community life.

Nick is the right one with a black hat

This afternoon, we 40 members met up at “White Horse” (it is a hotel actually) to explore Rottingdean Special —The Smugglers.  I took no.27 bus from Brighton centre to Rottingdean, it only 15-minute bus distance along Marine Parade road, then you can reach the quaint village by the sea.

Every December, Rottingdean residents celebrate their dark smuggling past with a festival. Under Nick’s guided walk and storytelling, we stepped into the unique smuggling history and paced to the seaside. After that, we visited an old church inside the village which add more mysteries.

Yes, living by the seaside village is a favourable opportunity for pirates! Tonight, local stores hung skull flags on the front, a forged pirate ship are there, people dressed in pirate and sailor clothes and glow sticks are sold on the streets.

These two photos are shared by our member Sarah

In the end of the walk, I stopped to listen street music and it is quite fun to enjoy a winter stroll in the dark evening.
Music on High Street

Read more Rottingdean

The Roman Baths--the City of Bath

The Roman Baths

I still remembered I once copied a sentence from the Roman Baths during my last visit to Bath. It seems to say, “Life is like a bath, with many bubbles within it.” It is a beautiful city with vintage ambience. Happily, I visited it again last week.

Traced back its history, in 836 BC, the spring was discovered by the British king who built the first baths, I guess he really know how to keep warm by a bath in the chilly English weather and have some enjoyable moment. After Roman invasion, it is well-preserved by Roman for public bathing.

Roman Baths is one of the historical sites in the UK now, the sacred spring at the very heart of the sites, a great temple is built next to the Spring, where the spirit of the goddess dwelt. According to the official website, the holy water are inscribed with the letters DSM (Deae Sulis Minerva) which shows that they were dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva. (See Roman Bath in different angles: )

The water which bubbles up from the ground and about 1,170,000 litres (240,000 gallons) of water rises here daily flow through the Roman great drain. All the designs of Roman Bath shows the wisdom of the Roman engineers, and some sculptures display how rich Roman is at that era.

A real women played a role of the ancient Roman

With healing power, some words describe the magic of the spring is worthy of coping herein: “if they can’t be cured by drinking and bathing here, they will never be cured anywhere.” Thus, never miss the opportunity to try the free natural Spa water at the end of your visit.

The Roman Bath website

Stonehenge--The World Heritage Site

Stonehenge

Last Sunday,6 November 2016, I visited the world-famous ancient stone-circle and the best-known prehistoric monument in Europe—Stonehenge. After three-hour bus distance from Brighton, I arrived at Stonehenge and got an entrance ticket from its brand new visitor centre.

The first stone I met in the walking trail

This mysterious Stonehenge and its surroundings is a world heritage site (1986) recognized by UNESCO. It is located in Wiltshire, England. According to archaeology, Stonehenge is completed around 1250 BC. So far, no one can exactly explain how ancient people move all these stones to this site and how it becomes a tool of everyday Neolithic life.

  

It could be assumed that ancient people used the stone-circle to calculate time? As you can see the sun-reflecting shadows from stone-circle in the ground; or perhaps it is a religious place that people used to worship their God (“spirit”).

However, one thing can be 100% sure is that Stonehenge is absolutely one of the cultural icons for the UK. And it is definitely a “must-see” landscape while you live in the southern UK. Just walk in and let the force from Stonehenge be with you.

 Check Stonehenge website

巨石陣 - 世界遺產
巨石陣
上週日，2016年11月6日，我參觀了世界著名的古代石圈和歐洲最著名的史前紀念碑 - 巨石陣。從布萊頓乘車3個小時後，我到達了巨石陣並從其全新的遊客中心取得一張門票。

我在步道上遇到的第一塊石頭
這個神秘的巨石陣及其周圍環境是聯合國教科文組織認可的世界遺產（1986年）。它位於英格蘭威爾特郡。根據考古學，巨石陣於公元前1250年左右完工。到目前為止，沒有人能夠準確地解釋古代人如何將所有這些石頭移動到這個地方以及它如何成為日常新石器時代生活的工具。

也許可以假設古代人是用石頭圈來計算時間. 如同你看到地面上石圈的陽光反射的陰影，或者它是人們過去崇拜他們的神（“精神”）的宗教場所?

然而，有一點可以100％肯定，巨石陣絕對是英國的文化標誌之一。當你住在英國南部時，這絕對是一個“必看”的景觀。走進去，讓巨石陣的力量與你同在。

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