Day 27 - Brighton to English Channel

While Jessica goes for a morning run and gets caught in the middle of a marathon, I pack up our things and book an apartment just outside of Paris. After a really good breakfast, we want to go sightseeing in Brighton. Since we are the only ones who know that the pier is famous, we stroll along the promenade to that very pier. The way is longer than expected and with many small breaks in the hidden shops along the promenade, we reach the pier an hour later. The Brighton Pier is more like an amusement park and the first thing you go through is a big hall with arcade games. Everything is loud, flashing, and tinkling. We quickly flee out the other side. As it started to drizzle, we decided to go back. In our car, we drove towards Newhaven, where we wanted to take the ferry back. On the way, we stopped at a restaurant where we enjoyed the last views of Brighton. However, we still had to deal with the PARKING problem. A big problem in Brighton. In general, parking there was very expensive. If you even found a free spot. When we finally found one, it took me about five minutes to squeeze into the tight parking space. There I could also get out again right away when we saw the parking fees. Right next to the restaurant, we found another parking lot where we could easily get in. The fees were the same. We accepted them now because we were hungry. But now we were missing the necessary change. A total of 70 pennies. When I asked a woman if she could change coins for us, she gave us 50 pennies because she didn't have enough coins. The man I asked next also gave us the remaining 20 pennies just like that. I really like the British people. This is just another example of how polite and kind they are. With words like darling and lovely, one can almost like them. After we paid, we ordered fish and chips and then headed to Newhaven. While waiting in line for the ferry, I found out through Facebook that a former colleague of mine was also in Brighton. Of course, I immediately wrote to him, and a phone call followed promptly. We laughed about the coincidence and then found it infinitely sad that we couldn't meet. The time passed and soon we could board the ferry. This time everything was done right, and I pulled the handbrake. Upstairs, we looked for a seat and watched movies on the laptop. At some point, I dozed off, but soon woke up because of the uncomfortable position. The journey took less time than expected, and soon we were driving on French roads again.