Hoorah, holiday time. We had decided to rent a holiday flat in Margate this time, as neither of us could remember being to Margate before
Friday 16th May 2014
Left home 3:35pm Better than expected journey round M25 on Friday afternoon, as arrived 6pm. No mobile phone signal so couldn't phone the key holder ! Walked down the road and found phone box but it was out of order! Went to police station to ask where another public phone was and they called the number for us. Turned out the mobile number was wrong anyway, but managed to find the right number and ended up getting into the flat around 6:30pm. The flat is in a nice location, 15 min walk to the harbour and sea front and has with free parking on the road in front of the flat. The flat itself has all the room we wanted, although could have done with an electric shaving point in the bathroom. Went out and got some groceries in the local aldi supermarket, which was 10 minute walk away. The local Casino is only 5 mins away so may have to pop in there sometime as well :) Went out for a walk to find our dinner, but as was getting late by now, ended up in KFC.
Saturday 17th
Had reasonable sleep, but the room is on a bit of a slope so felt like was rolling down the bed ! Out the flat around 9:45am but is a bit cloudy so decide to go for a walk around. Had coffee in Dane Park which was very pleasant. Ended up doing a bit of shopping down the high street before going back to the flat for lunch. The sun came out after lunch as promised by the weather forecast so went on the beach for a couple of hours, before back to the flat for a rest. Went to the Mechanical Elephant (Wetherspoons) on the sea front for our dinner, then had another walk, ending up at the local Social Club for a drink. It must be all the fresh air, but we both feel worn out !
Sunday 18th
Had decent sleep, as got used to the sloping bed by now. Didn't wake up until 9am but still managed to get onto the beach at 10am. By time we'd setup "base camp" it was coffee time then after a rest it's back to the flat for lunch already. It's a bit chilly in the flat, so go back out into the sun by 1:30pm and setup on beach in base camp again by 2pm. Time flies by by doing nothing (apart from eating ice cream) and by 5pm we're feeling a bit sun struck, so pack up and go back to the flat to get ready for our quest for food (dinner :) ) Seems there is some kind of polical rally in the Winter Gardens (we're opposite the entrance) as noisy crowds and police around the entrance! Turned out UKIP rally with Nigel Farage speaking, so bit of excitement. We went out for out dinner and ate at a pub "The Hoy" which was doing Sunday Lunch menu so we both had nice Beef Sunday lunch meal and I had room for Pear and Peach crumble with custard, which was jolly nice. We needed a walk after that, so had a long walk along the prom.
Monday 19th
Woke around 8:30am ! and it's a beautiful sunny day By time we'd had breakfast and smothered ourselves with factor 30 it was 10am before we got to the beach again. It was just us, some seagulls and some workmen on the beach when we arrived. Got our morning coffee and busied outselves watching the tide come in until lunchtime at midday, but were back on the beach by 2pm. Lasted until 5pm, despite the sun shade keep blowing itself inside out in the growing wind. For dinner we decided to go to the Brewers Fayre pub “The Promenade”, mainly because it was the other end of town and we wanted a walk. Had OK meal then walked back via the casino. It took about 5 mins to sort out the memberships to get in, 5 minutes to walk around and see what was going on, then about 5 minutes to both loose £50 on the roulette... oh well, at least we had a bit of entertainment :) Went back to flat early, so we didn't spend any more !
Tuesday 20th
Woke to a bright sunny day, despite the forecast being for cloud and rain. Got 10am bus to Broadstairs and had nice walk before coffee, then another walk before a nice lunch in a bakery shop. Left at 1:15pm to walk the 4 miles or so back to Margate along the coast path. Was too hot to begin with, but did cloud over and eventually rain a bit as well before we got back. Had to stop in a pub for a rest and drink, plus have another rest stop for coffee and cake along the route... so didn't get back to the flat until around 4:30pm for a well deserved rest. We had planned to go to pub "The Lifeboat" for dinner, but poor online reviews put me off a bit. In the end we were too tired to walk about looking for an alternative, so ended up in pub anyway. The food was OK as it turned out albeit very basic pie and mash and there was sawdust as a floor covering :) I had a bit of a disturbed night sleep, partly due to being some noise out the back but also possibly to do with the pie and mash plus pudding leaving me with a very full feeling belly !
Wednesday 21st
Lynn awoke bright and cherpy and full of get up and go... very unusual but today is our designated "shopping day" !! Its a bit dull and forecast rain (which materialised later in the day) so we're happy to be going to West Wood Cross which is basically a large retail park. Arrive around 10am and spend an hour in Primark ! but at least that means its time for coffee and bisquit in Debenhams. Had good march around more shops until lunch, which we had in a rather crowded M&S (why aren't all these people at work !!) After lunch, we must be getting worn out as only last about another hour of shopping before we had to stop for cup of tea and cake. Finally hit the last shop around 4pm and we're both glad of the sit down in the car going home. Had a long rest in the flat before braving the weather (and the steep hill) to go out for dinner. Ended up at 'Bentleys' for dinner. Had good service and great food, the best meal of the holiday so far. By the time we left if was hammering with rain so got soaked getting back to the flat, despite our waterproof coats!
Thursday 22nd
Had a good sleep and awoke around 8:45am for breakfast in bed (again!) Up and out by 10am for another "shopping day" but this time just walking around Margate. Mike got carried away in Edinburgh Woollen Mill's sale and bought whole new wardrobe! Back to flat for lunch, before going out for afternoon session. Did a lot more walking around the shops and also went into the Turner Contemporary. It was a bit weird, in that most of the exibit room were closed for resetting of the exhibits... so seemed to us to be only the shop and cafe open, although could well have missed some stunning exhibits, if they looked like blank walls..... Went back into the old town to finish off the shopping and had one small rest at the "Cupcake Cafe" where Lynn had cupcake but Mike had TWO bits of cake !! By the time we got back to the flat, we both felt shopped out ! After a long rest, we're just about ready to walk down the hill one last time for our Pizza dinner. We went to GB Pizza on the seafront. By now was actually hot and sunny, and although the Pizza was quite good, the resteraunt was baking hot as was in full glare of the sun, with no blinds or anything, so was glad to get back out onto the sea front.
Friday 23rd
It never takes so long to pack for going home, but it was good we had an estate car in order to get in all our new purchases ! We left around 9:45am but hit horrid jam on the M25 so didn't get home until around 12:30, but overall wasn't a bad journey home
The holiday as a whole was perhaps better than we could have expected, with the nice weather. A week is probably long enough to exhaust the delights of Margate itself, but could have done more touring around the area, had we stayed longer or the weather not have been so nice. All in all a nice relaxing holiday and were happy with our choice of seaside town and accomodation
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