Tuesday 3 November 2020

Sunday Morning,

and time for us to go for our walk,


and a quick couple,

of photographs,

looking out of our bedroom window, it looked a bit grey and overcast,

but not to worry as we looked back to where we had a wonderful meal last night,

we stopped for a photograph or two,

by the harbour,

by now the rain had stopped,

but it was still a bit blowy,

we decided on a walk towards Pegwell Bay,

passing this legend on the harbour side,

although they look nice I have never been a fan of the yachts that are powered by what I call a piece of stick and a rag,

I much prefer the ones where I call down to one of the crew, 'full ahead both and bring me a large pink gin!' the sun almost breaking through the cloud,

I liked the street art above the chippy,

we made our way down to the beach,

for a few photographs,

and had the beach to ourselves,

along the front a lot of work was underway, with these amusing beach huts hiding the construction,

well I thought they were amusing!

the waves were still pounding the beach defences,

with spray high in the air,

I mentioned to Diana that I remembered these,


way back in the mid 1950s, both Ramsgate and Margate were popular summer holiday destinations for the Kemp family, the reason I remember Ramsgate so well was that at the time there was a model railway that kids could sit on, that went into the tunnel, inside it was lit up like a fairyland grotto, the happy days of youth,

now here is the question,

climb the stairs, or take the longer route up the long and winding road?

the road it was then,

it did not look steep,

but my legs were telling a different story,

the top at last,

looking down onto the building site, apparently there is going to be some new homes and a hotel built,

we walked along the top road,

until we arrived at Townley's, where we had booked a table for Sunday lunch,

we were a tad early,

so we walked down into town,

and yes the steps were steep!

we passed the Rubber Chicken House,

and continued down,

passing a store I like looking in,

a fishing tackle shop,

with a very narrow profile,

we had not noticed on the way down, but on the way up we were witnessing the craft of Augusts Pugin brought to life, 

as we ascended on the right hand side a charming courtyard, with houses leading off, 

and the legend to Augustus,

up the hill, past the municipal gardens,

and time for a quick photograph,

and we were inside Towney's, by now we knew that this would be our last weekend or indeed night out for some time with the lockdown soon to be in place, 

so a last celebration it was then, I went with a bottle of Brut NV, bottled by a world leading UK vineyard, Chaple Down,

and Diana pushed the boat out with a cocktail, a Rhubarb Rollins, which was vodka with rhubarb liqueur, lillet blanc and fresh lemon juice, served in a Martini glass with fresh rhubarb,

'Cheers!',

we ordered a shared starter,

which looked and was large,

two pots, one with smoked mackerel, one with crab, lots of prawns and lashings of smoked salmon with sourdough bread,

some how I ended up peeling the prawns,

the dinning room was huge and a part of the hotel,

we had the place to ourselves, but then we did book the table for 12.00 midday,

towards the end of the meal most of the tables had been taken, it was a good job that we booked,

'Cheers!',

our main courses arrived,

a top up of bubbly,

and it was time to start, Diana, chose roast beef I went with pork belly, the crackling superb, in fact the whole meal was, Diana as many know does not like alcohol, so I finished her cocktail, which it has to be said was rather nice,

a coffee for Diana and a spiced rum for myself, what a lovely weekend it was, the food, accommodation, everything nicer than we expected, we checked out of the hotel but we still had one thing to do,

buy a refrigerator magnet, a walk to the station and then the nightmare began, on the way down here it was a train from Beckenham to Bromley, then a second train to Margate, we made it in no time, but Southeaston Rail had other ideas about our return! first a train, then a one hour bus ride, followed by another train, and then another! as it happened rather than wait for nearly an hour for the last train in our journey we walked to the bus stop and took a bus home, arriving home and looking at the time, had we have waited for the train, we would have still be at the train station! nearly 5 hours to get home, Southeaston Rail must have as its motto, 'Why have chaos when with a little forward planning we can make a complete disaster of travel plans' for us feet up for a couple from Columbo and a New Tricks, then for us we were off to bed.
 

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