A super nostalgic weekend.

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This weekend we went off to spend the weekend on the coast. It was quite a nostalgic visit for me because many many years ago it was where I spent some of my college days. We stayed in a seaside resort called Margate which is right on the foreland in Kent where the estuary of the River Thames is, the start of the English Channel and the North sea. My parents used to bring us here occasionally to the beach and we would spend the day swimming and playing on the sand. It is a very typical Victorian seaside town. Although in places it is a bit run down but in others it is quite nice. I remember a storm back in the 70's when I struggled to get to a hospital I was working in and was blown to pieces in the horrible stormy weather. There was a Victorian pier which was blown down in the storm. It was left in a vary precarious situation and was eventually completely knocked down. On the sandy beach there is a lido which at high tide would be completely covered with sea water and then when the tide went out the lido would be left refreshed with sea water. There was a hospital there called the sea bathing hospital where patients would be given hydrotherapy treatments including the use of seaweed which is full of iodine. We met some friends who have recently retired and moved here and we went to a local fish restaurant and as you can probably guess I had fish and chips but they had other fish dishes. It was really tasty and all the fish was so fresh. On Sunday we had a drive along the coast to the beautiful seaside town of Broadstairs. It is a very popular place in the summer and winter months. One of the most notable people who visited Broadstairs was the famous Charles Dickens who frequently took rooms here whilst writing his books. They even hold a Dickens festival here in the Summer months when people dress up in Victorian costumes and there are all kinds of parades and activities that go on to entertain visitors to the area. I guess most people have heard of Bleak house. Actually in his days it was called Fort house. It was in a very strategic position overlooking the channel during the times of the Napoleonic wars and was used as a look out post. It was also used as a guest house and Dickens often took rooms here and entertained both his family and friends from his writing circle of friends including Hans Christian Anderson. The sun shone all day and although it was sunny there was still quite a nip in the air. It is practically the law that one has ice cream when one visits the seaside. Of course we maintained this tradition and had some delicious ice cream. The photo is of the pier and part of the beach looking up to the large brown looking house which is called Bleak House!