Yesterday I went to the seaside on a coach not being a car driver.
Most of the people on the coach were groan ups who looked very groan up but me being a little said "Naw, I'm a little" so went in my red school sweatshirt, grey shorts, the most cutest cat socks you could imagine with a pretty pink bow and regular unisex brogue style children's shoes. In addition I had my Hello Kitty childrens' flight and tote bag!!!
We set off travelling south through Jennifer's beloved Staffordshire Black Country (Btw it's more green than you'd think) that,being subject to long delays around Walsall and Bescot we had good views of. There were further delays on the M5 just south of Birmingham as far as Worcester North but the run through Bristol passing the bridge with good views across to South Wales was much easier.
When we arrived in Weston Super Mare, although I had been snacking on Barley sugars and chocolate finger biscuits - too bad they didn't have any animal shaped ones in - I was hungry so I called in at the Dragon Inn, a Weatherspoons public house that does food.
The food was nice , I had a Steak and Kidney pie and the manager was really funny!
Having eaten I felt like going on a bit of a walk around as I've never been here before and I'd have to say everywhere was super clean with litter pickers active during the day.
Some people don't realize the danger encouraging Seagulls with food can cause especially if you're a child having a picnic with your family.
The beach was cleaner than a good number in North Wales I could think of with finely grained sand.
There is one automatic response when I see a beach and it involves a bucket and spade so guesses for what happened next! Also the next response is something like getting a Pirates flag and waving it around while jumping up and down. Nobody I was with said anything!
Seaside towns often have amusement arcades, something the bigger side of me isn't too keen on but who couldn't resist the chance to win your very own Hello Kitty plushie? Well I sure couldn't.
The Pier was burnt down a few years ago but a great job was done of rebuilding it with associated facilities for that whole strolling along the pier experience. For an out of season weekday, it sure was busy.
Finally I had to be super careful not to get in the way of this the Great Western Land Train that runs to the Harbour and back along the sidewalk. I think the Great Western was train company that operated in the South West of England before nationalization (and privatization in the 1990's).
The return back was much smoother stooping at Frankley services south Birmingham to freshen up
Weston's a fairly nice place, as well as being the most convenient beach for Midlanders. Those driving there get to park on a section of beach, and during the summer months there are often events on the strips of parkland behind the prom (derived from promenade - the very wide stretch of footway between the beach and the road). In addition, as most of the town is away from the beach, it doesn't feel as overly commercialised as many resorts which have a string of arcades, tacky souvenir shops and hotels / B&Bs immediately adjacent to the prom.
ReplyDeleteAs for the GWR, it was apparently the biggest of the pre-Nationalisation companies, operating across the triangle from London Paddington to Chester (with branches to Manchester and Liverpool) and Cornwall (with branches to Southampton and Weymouth/Portland), courtesy of a contemporary map of the network hosted on Wikipedia.