As It Was Diana's Day Off,

we were back to the station, 

 a few more people here now than when we were several hours ago,

 and for today's trip out,

 we went to Whitstable, on the Kent coast,

 we made our way to the harbour, where the skyline was dominated by a gravel and rock works,

 on the quayside,

 there were a number of small seafood cafes and restaurants,

 but before eating a look around, firstly at the space capsule, 

 and then some of the harbourside attractions,

 a few of which had opened, the design of the stalls based on the traditional hanging huts for trawler and drifters nets to dry,

 in the harbour, 

 a couple of working boats,

 a quick pose,

 and we were off, 

 on the other side of the quay a few more huts,

if this is operating today, we might have a trip around the bay,

 we passed one of the restaurants,

 and looked at some selling local handicrafts and souvenirs, but alas no refrigerator magnets,

 many of the stalls not yet open,

 OK, 

 I had to have a pose,

 on our way,

 so many restaurants,

 and stalls selling, 

 oysters and other seafood,

 we walked down to the beach,

 which is mainly shingle, a wooden jetty in place for,

 the many pleasure craft in the yachting club,

 in the far distance some of the oyster nets, 

 a panorama of the west side beach,

 a couple more working boats,

 Diana said 'hello' to Mr. Fish and Mr. Chips, 

 ice cream, great for after lunch,

 we started walking west, 

 looking back east towards Herne Bay,

 which is a couple of miles past this headland,

 all along his section of beach,

 there are beach huts, in some resorts you can hire them, in some resorts they can be bought and sold, in both instances there is normally a long waiting list, and of course whatever you have, in the majority of resorts you can not stay in them overnight, but there are exceptions like this one, that sleeps up to six people, the catch? it has no electricity, toilet or running water, a snip at just £280,000, yes that is correct, over a quarter of a million pounds! beach huts in the UK are highly sort after,

 it was painful going over the oyster shells,

 and there were lot of them, 

 so a pose and a rest,

 and a look out to sea,

Diana is looking at in the distance an eyesore, a wind farm, 

 we started looking at restaurants,

 we both had not eaten, we decided on this one, inside a flurry of activity, as a number of staff readied the place, midday came and went, us and a few others we got tired of waiting, wait a second that is the title of a tune that I remember from the 1960s by the Kinks!

 so we started walking to the east,

 passing many more beach huts,

 along many parts of the Kent coast erosion by the sea is a problem, so here every so often goynes stretch out into the sea, to stop or at least impede the movement of sand and shingle, the good news is that on windy days they make ideal windbreaks, 

 this looked so nice, a balcony view of the sea, and they were open! 

 so the Waterfront it was then,

up on the balcony, on the right the Savoy,

 in front of us the sea,

 and just below us an ice cream van, 

 we both commented how fortuitous it was,

 that the other place was too busy to open, this was so much nicer,

 and for a change,

 for my lunch time tipple,

 a glass or three of white wine,

 and rather nice it was too, 

 a Jack Rabbit,

 our meal arrived,

 it was huge,

 cod and chips, fresh off of the boat,

 meal over as I still had some wine left Diana had a coffee, 

 the bill came to £47.00, which seemed about average having looked at a number of other places, but this one was so nice with the balcony, 

 we decided to continue walking towards Herne Bay,

 ice cream in hand of course!

 we passed another restaurant/cafe/bar, but we were too full to try it out,

 a quick look at the seafront, 

 it was a glorious day, but it is not always like that here,

 if you look past the lifebuoy, you can see how low the water is,

 the same looking towards the gavel works, and although this coast is sheltered from the worst of the winter storms, there is a concrete seawall,

 and a huge,

 heavy duty gate,

 which can be closed to stop flooding in extreme weather,

 but it was definitely not needed today! 

 it was so hot,

 a last look at the beach, and we were on our way home, 

 but first I thought this was neat, the parking under the Savoy, making great use of the limited space on the seafront,

 back to the station,

 on the balcony we thought it was a resin cast dog,

 until it moved!

 back to the station, 

 and a downside to the heat,

 the train service was thrown into chaos, 

 we wait for nearly an hour,

 for the twice hourly train to appear,

then on our way home, past the Russian submarine in the River Medway, all went well changing at Bromley South, then it all went mustang again, no trains to Beckenham Junction, then two leaving within three minutes of each other, and the reason for the chaos? I wish I had photographed it on the message board, Heat On The Rails, on the journey we could not but help overhearing a conversation about the swimming lake in Beckenham Place Park, we went there when it opened at the weekend, I mentioned in the post there were none of these,

in place at the lake side, 

lucky the incident did not require the use of one, and the young chap was fine, but what a shock for the family, I just hope the mayor of London who made such a big fuss when he signed off on the lake and opened it, has now put lifebuoys/rings in place, you never know, today one might be needed, 

on a slightly different note, we just had to post this, as if the lack of lifebuoys is not enough! arriving home after some shopping in Marks and Spencers it was feet up for an evening of television, Australian Gold Hunters and a few others, then for us we were off to bed.