We arrived after a long drive (my boo-boo) and into their rush hour at 5pm so Dave wasn't the happiest when we got there. However the view was amazing and the beach looked like it needed to be walked along! Dave's spirit s were really lifted when we found a Thai restaurant next door and boy it was yum! Different from the Starlake - Dave had a chilli lamb (he said it went up to about 8/10 on the heat chilli scale) and was delicious apparently. It was nice to have something different for a change. (Tho. Dave said he spent half and hour in the toilet at 4.30am dealing with the side effects of the chilli!)
The morning was spent going down to the beach - which was gorgeous sand as far as the eye could see.
Not many people around, except some uni. students in groups making sandcastles for some kind of Orientation week competition! (uni has just gone back). There seemed to be a lot of laughter and great grand design consultation going on.
Did you know that this was a place to go during the Victorian age? Lots of great houses and hotels overlooking the beach. Our hotel even had an ancient lift that went up and down the cliff side for it's patrons! Also Bournemouth has a pier! Cost you one pound to walk on it - so that didn't happen.
There are all these old dressing sheds along the beach that used to be for changing into togs etc. Very quaint.
We took the lift back up just to see what it was like. Not for the faint-hearted!
Brighton
Brighton was only two hours away (Dave checked the nav man before we started this time!) It is a very long city going along the coast. Had some difficulty finding our hotel which ended up being on the waterfront - virtually brand new so the nav-man didn't know it- and about 200 m from the Brighton Pier. God I know how to pick hotels!
We dumped our geat and again went walking. The beach is long but made of pebbles and stones!
The pier is very long, part of it is a huge covered in amusement arcade and then at the end is amusement rides like you see at the show. I am talking roller coasters and a big arm thing that went round and round. Some of the rides were shut as I am guessing it is at the end of their season. although the weather was quite nice.
Views from the pier.
Out at sea is what is left of the old pier. I think it was destroyed by fire in 2003 and then demolished by storms.
After the pier we went for a walk along the beach where there are some crafty places working out of boat sheds - quite cool.
Near the end was this British Airways i360 - which is a huge tall tower with a round circluar type room/viewing 360degrees and it goes slowly up the tower and stays up there for a while and then comes down. I really wanted to go in it, but Dave said I would freak out as per normal at heights (which in my defence isn't always the case). Anyway we just watched it go up like an alien spaceship!
Opposite the beach is Regency Square which is a large square (with one side being the sea promenade). There are gorgeous Victorian houses all looking into the square grass area in the middle or facing the sea. Quite lovely.
On the way back we saw this outside the Hilton (on the waterfront by our hotel). A ferrari. Dave was impressed!
Both these towns would be quite hectic in summer - people everywhere. I think we saw them in a much nicer light.
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