White Cliff

Yesterday, we decided to go to the White Cliff walking along the scenic trail from the Seven Sisters to Eastbourne. It took us about an hour to get to Brighton from London Victoria by Southern Express train. At Brighton, we took bus 12 at Churchill Square to Exceat (about 45-minute ride), where the trail began.

We followed the sign, South Downs Way Trail, and walked uphill to the top of the Seven Sisters, which gave us spectacular views of the white cliff and the borderless sea. We then walked eastward on the undulating landscape and arrived at Birling Gap. There, we descended a wooden staircase to get to the foot of the cliff and rested on a stony beach. After a 30-minute break, we walked uphill again to our next destination, the Beachy Head - the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain. That’s also where the toughest part of our journey began. By the time I got to the Beachy Head, my energy level had been dropping low; but we had not reached our final destination, the Eastbourne Pier. That would be another 2 hours walk. Anyhow, we kept on walking; and I kept on reminding myself that I would get to taste the best fish and chips there. That was how I made it to the end.

To me, the 5-hour trail, going uphill and downhill, was physically demanding. It reminded me of the trail walk I had on the Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai; but this time the path was wider and had less crumbled stones. After the walk, my leg muscles were tight and aching. I had to take Tylenol to soothe the pain. Nonetheless, I still found the journey rewarding.

Here are some of the photos of the white cliff along the trail:

White Cliff - I

Seven Sisters

White Cliff - II

Birling Gap

White Cliff - III

Beachy Head

White Cliff - IV

From Beachy Head to Eastbourne Pier

Horniman Museum

Horniman Museum is a hidden gem in London. It has a unique collection of musical instruments, natural history and anthropological artefacts. I am especially impressed by the rare masks collection in the Centenary Gallery; and to my surprise, there is a very well maintained aquarium at the basement.

Psycho Buildings

Psycho Building: Artists Take on Architecture is an interactive-exhibition of space within space, both physical and perceptual, created by contemporary artists to explore our multiple relations with S P A C E.

“Here, we find architecture not in its functional guise but as a site of desire, memory and doubt, home to personal contingencies and collective histories, the clashing of cultures and coalescing of subjectivities. Refusing to address us as mere spectators, these works implicate us in the spaces they generate, engaging us in ways that are at once visceral and conceptual, and that call attention to what must be experienced rather than merely seen.”

– Ralph Rugoff, Psycho Buildings

LFA: The Urban Pavilions