After our evening meal we went for a little walk to take a look at the sea.

Views of the sea at evening

The sun was setting and the daylight was fading, making the scene rather leaden but perhaps even more dramatic.

Boats on the beach

Old Lifeboat Station

This is the old lifeboat station. It closed as such in 1912 and its functions are served by the modern motorised lifeboats in Ramsgate and Margate. It is now an RNLI shop.

Leaning

This side view shows how ramshackle it has become with a marked lean to starboard!

Home again

It was now decidedly chilly outside and therefore a pleasure to return to our temporary home.

What shall we find to do tomorrow? 🙂

The reason why we omitted our usual weekly visit to Sainsbury’s yesterday is that we are going away for a few days. As the title says, we are going to Broadstairs in Kent, returning on Friday.

At the bus stop

The heatwave has definitely faded, at least for now, but the day is pleasantly sunny and warm. One of the problems of travelling in Britain is knowing what clothes to take with you to cope with possible weather changes. We went to the bus stop in Pentonville Road and caught a 214 for St Pancras.

EL & N

We breakfasted at EL & N while the Eurostar queue filed continually past the windows like a human river.

Aboard the HS1

We went upstairs to the HS1 platforms and boarded our train. It departed on the dot of 10:12. We should arrive in Broadstaits at 11:33.

Crossing the Medway
Photo by Tigger

We crossed the Medway into the ancient kingdom (now merely a county) of Kent.

Hurrying through the Kent countryside
Photo by Tigger

The train carried us through the sunlit Kent countryside, heading to Broadstairs and the seaside. We arrived at a destination exactly on time at 11:33.

In the apartment

We are staying, not in a hotel but in an apartment near the bay. We were met at the station by the owner and transported by car to our temporary abode – an unusual but welcome service.

Harbour Street
Photo by Tigger

Barely had we arrived when we had to go out again as we have people to meet. We walked up Harbour Street with its famous arch.

Viking Bay

I had time for a quick first photo of Bay. It was low tide, as you can perhaps see.

Cecil Square, Margate

We caught a bus to Margate where Tigger had arranged to meet friends and a relative. We left the bus in Cecil Square.

Cecil Square Baptist Church

The two most interesting buildings in the square, though each for different reasons, are the Baptist church, dated 1899 and…

Old Post Office

…the old early 20th-century old Post Office, no longer used as such,

Proper Coffee

We met people in this coffee bar and also had lunch there.

Aboard the Loop

Afterwards, we returned to Cecil Square and boarded a bus of the service called the Loop which travels around the main towns of the local Thanet area.

Suits of armour

We left the bus in Broadstairs outside this business that has two suits of armour to attract attention.

The Co-operative

On our way down the hill, we came upon a Co-operative store. Here we carried out a reduced version of our weekly shopping: as we have a kitchen, we can be more adventurous than just buying sandwiches as we did when staying in a hotel.

Charles Dickens’s House

As we approached the promenade I took a quick first photo of the house that Charles Dickens occupied. Not that there is anything particularly novel about this as Dickens travelled widely and there are few towns that do not boast a “Dickens house”.

The tide’s in

From the promenade (which runs along the cliff top) we had a view of Viking Bay where the tide was now in.

Reaching “home” (as it now is until Friday), we stowed the shopping and made tea. We may or may not venture forth again later.