We Are Only Making One Post Today,

firstly as there are a lot of pictures,

 and secondly Grieg, (AKA have screwdriver will travel), is arriving early in the morning to start to make the 8 flat packs that we have into completed furniture, I had thought of doing it myself, but I decided that it is better to use someone that does this as a job as there were so many items to assemble, back to yesterday, 

 and we were off to Orpington, where we changed trains,

 and arrived in Hastings,

 where the seagulls were remarkably friendly, 

 with the railway station behind us,

 we started our walk into town,

 past the fishing boat on the traffic island, RX refers to the registration area of the boat, the RX standing for Rye, where we were a couple of weeks ago,

 as Diana popped into Primark I walked into the square where I was approached by a security guard and told photographs are forbidden here, it is private property, talk about being embarrassed! why on earth are there no signs saying 'No Photography' then I could have saved myself the embarrassment of this encounter, 'Welcome to Hastings!, what a way to treat tourists!

 after passing the no photography zone,

 I continued clicking away,

 we made our way under the pedestrian underpass, 

 where a gentleman with a guitar entertained shoppers,

 above the tunnel a mosaic depicting the seafaring history of the town,

 of course we had to buy a refrigerator magnet,

 we walked along the seafront,

 and past the crazy golf, 

 onto the beach, looking back towards the pier, 

 Diana strikes the pose, 

 we were hoping for sunny skies,

 but alas it was not to be, great news though, it did not rain!

 I called it crazy golf it is in fact adventure golf,

 and I have to say whoever thought out the features, 

 deserves a medal, no plain hills and windmills here, the boat, and this just one of a few boats and other features, looks really good,

 we continued our walk along the front,

 and then I spotted it, a minature railway!

 also there was a big funfair type park on the seafront,

 with a boating lake, 

 and then there it was, the Inter City Express making it's way towards the go kart track,

 we passed a few more rides,

 on the other side of the road, venues for Mums and Dads,

 I also noticed many of the buildings still have shiplap cladding I think it is called, 

 we were walking towards the net drying sheds,

 which the restaurant we are going to eat in is behind,

 and here it is, a recommendation from Mr. Tony, 

 Maggies, famous for its fish and chips,

 and how neat is this, the railway runs underneath it!

 and speaking of railways, we took a few pictures,

 of the funicular railway,

this one of two in Hastings, this one just opposite Maggies,

 as we made our way upstairs,

 one of the seagulls welcomed us,

 I think it was waiting for us to come back with a chip! just a small thing, as regular readers will know we take peanuts for swans, ducks and squirrels when we visit parks, but one thing we never do is feed seagulls,

 so drinks ordered, and we settled down for our meal,  

 with a nice view of the sea,

 and fisherman's huts,

 and of course the railway, a real big boys toy!

 and this is what Maggie's is famous for, fish and chips, this is the regular sized portion, there is also a large serving if you are really hungry, 

 we also ordered 2 gherkins and a sausage, plus a coke for Diana,

 and we followed our meal with this,

 a peach Knickerbocker glory, just a couple of things about Maggie's, book a table as we did, whilst eating a number of people who arrived without booking could not be seated, the food really was that good, normally when eating chips or potatoes for that matter, I make a token gesture of eating just a few, these were so nice I ate the lot! and just one other small thing, cash only, our meal with tip was £50.00, many thanks Mr.Tony, a great recommendation,

 we made our way downstairs, 

 walking over the railway racks, 

 I had a closer look at one of the trains, 

 on the turntable,

 this one with its engine cowling removed,

the heart of the beast,

 walking back to the main road,

 we passed one of the boats on display,

 next to the drying huts,

 I am not sure if these were originally net drying huts that have been converted, or new buildings in the style of drying huts, 

next, to the funicular railway,

 as I mentioned this is one of two, 

 the sign says it all,

 £3.00 each and we were in,

  it is so much steeper than it looks,

 nearly half way,

 very nearly half way,

 and here we are,

 at the top of the cliff,

 with a view across Hastings,

 I zoomed in a tad,

 and of course had to put the camera in panorama mode,

 I zoomed in a tad more,

 time for a pose,

 and a close up,

 the pier in the distance,

 and the beach,

 inland there are 2 churches,

 I am not sure of their ages,

 at the top of the hill, the beacon,  

 there are a number of walks that you can take from the top of the hill,

 or, 

 you can take a bench, 

 and view the town,

 as I did,

 OK, one more pose for the album,

 and a close up, well Diana insisted,

 and back down,

 we went,

 we had the cabin to ourselves,

 on our way down,

 reaching the beach road, I noticed this half boat, I looked for the other half,

  and there it was,

 at least that is what it looked like,

 all of the time under the watchful eyes of the seagulls, they are surprisingly big when they allow you to get up close,

 we had passed this fishmongers on the way to Maggie's,

 and we just had to call in,

 2 dressed crabs to go,

 whilst waiting I spotted these huge crabs,

 memories of Dad and Grandad returning home with a couple of crabs like these, plus all of the supporting seafood, all served with brown bread and butter,

 just one more thing to go,

 we had run out of whelks, so a large portion of those please,

 we walked along the beach road,

 passing the net huts,

 and crossing the railway,

 and Maggie's,

 next to the beach,

  passing the pots stacked that reminded me of the stacks of pots in Deadliest Catch,  

 looking at the holes that the creatures crawl into the pots, reminded me of how often I have seen pictures of super sized lobsters,

 but if you think about the lobsters in those pictures, they are all 'normal' sized, and they are very common, it is just that they are not caught very often, once a lobster grows too large to fit in the hole, it can no longer be caught, unless it is brought up on the outside of a pot, lobsters do really grow large, if they escape being caught when they are pot sized,

Hastings does not have a harbour, so fishing vessels have to be dragged up and pushed down the beach to the sea, using stationary engines like this one,

 or movable machines like this one, the salt air having a visible effect on this bulldozer,

 the same but with tyres,

 they are everywhere,

 so not only do you have the running costs of the boat, but you have to run a tractor type vehicle as well, 

 and the boats have to be extra strong,

 the keels have to take the strain of being scraped up and down the beach, 

 both the main keel,

 and the two smaller ones to stop the boat from tipping over when landed or in a tidal mooring when the tide goes out,

 and fastings have to take the daily wear and tear placed on them,

 and at low tide it is quite a distance to travel,

 also at the business end,

 both propellor and rudder have to be protected from the abrasive effect of the beach,

 looking back towards the beacon,

 and beached boats, 

 Diana with the seagulls, 

 and a close up,

  we made our way back to beach road, 

 but first a quick pose where the stones were dry, 

 as we returned the train chugged past,

 we had not walked this way past the Ferris wheel,

 or the ice cream shop, 

 so while Diana was buying a couple of ice creams, I took a few photographs,

 and as these things go,

 very reasonably priced, 

 rather nicely some of the cloud had cleared, just right for a sit down and ice cream,

 this plant was making a good show,

 with its strange flowers,

 these looked like great fun,

 if only I was a kid again! 

 we made our way back towards the station, having looked at just a few of the many things Hastings has to offer,

 it was now that I had to put my camera away as we entered the 'Hasting No Photograph Zone', I did not want to be embarrassed by a security guard again, which was a shame as the building in the privately owned square, the one on the right, looked very interesting, also in the square there is a bronze statue of a cricket player, 'The Spirit of Cricket' unveiled by her Majesty the Queen to celebrate the opening of Priory Meadow Shopping Centre, the centre is built on the site of the former Central Cricket and Recreation Ground, on which the game was enjoyed for over 130 years, it was commissioned by Boots Properties PLC. I would have liked to photograph that as well, but there it is, what a shame that this part of Hastings is so photographer unfrendy,

 as we exited the photograph exclusion zone we made our way to the station,

 arriving back in Beckenham, after all of that walking it was a quick stop into O'Neill's for some liquid refreshment,  

 at home the refrigerator magnet put in place, hopefully when we start moving bits and pieces upstairs we can finally unpack the rest of the boxes we have brought over from Thailand and find the rest of them, 

as we were still full from the meal at Maggie's, in the evening Diana had a small snack and I had one of the dressed crabs with bread and butter, delicious! after that it was feet up for a few antiques quiz shows, one about cars and a Doctor Blake Mystery rounding off the evening with a Game of Thrones, and with the end of that we were off to bed.