Southend-On-Sea Post Of Day One Part One,

as Diana's holiday continued, we were up early,

and with glad rags on we were off to Southend-On-Sea,

before leaving the park I had a letter to drop off in the snail mail box,

we were soon at the station for the train to Victoria,

we had to travel to Victoria, where we caught a tube to Tower Hill,

and then walked to Fenchurch Street train station,

and caught a train to,

Southend-On-Sea,

we arrived at Southend Central,

and made our way into town,

naturally stopping on the way,

we had plenty of time before checking in,

whilst I found out where we were going,

Diana had a quick look,

and there it was,

our first glimpse of it, Southend pier,

a quick pose, in the background the lift that goes down two floors to the Beach Road,

on the right the municipal gardens,

and beyond them a part of a huge seaside funfair,

the other part of it on the left,

also on the left our hotel,

the Park Inn by Radisson Palace,

looking down to Beach Road,

a wheelchair ramp, that looks great for skaters and skateboarders! we ignored it,

and the steps,

 by now we were closer to the funfair,

leaving the hotel behind,

the funfair's rides looking scary even though they were not going,

we walked closer to the lift,

the end of the pier a misty in the distance,

a quick pose on the upper deck,

and a look to the right,

and left at Beach Road,

before we arrived at sea level,

on the other side of the bridge, so many fish and chip shops,

we bought our tickets for the train to the end of the pier,

a bit difficult to see, these are the charges, you can of course walk, but Southend pier is 1.34 miles long! so it takes a bit of time to walk there and back,

we had a look at one of the trains,

ours will be arriving here,

I kept looking but no sign of it,

so we decided to have a walk,

and have a look around the beach front,

the sign,

says it all, but not for us, the train it is,

above the shops our hotel,

there were so many places to eat on the front, but his one caught my eye, on the left Marilyn's dress was actually moving in a current in the air, just like it did in the film,

the rides looking even more scary dairy close up,

also along the front, so many amusement arcades,

the train was due, so back we went,

I was expecting to see some plays on words regarding fish & chip shops, like the Codfather, but Fish & Wish was it,

some of the many fish & chip shops on the front,

we were still a tad early,

"I spy with my little eye!"

then here it is,

our train to the pier end,

if you are interested in the history of the world's longest pleasure pier in the world, follow this link,

there was a school group on this train, so day trippers like us were asked to go to the front of the train,

all aboard,

and we were off,

Diana multi tasking, making a video and posing!

a quick pose from me before anyone else got on board,

we were soon,

leaving the coast behind,

in no time at all,

our journey was over,

we let most of the group go first,

looking back to the shore,

a quick pose,

and we were on our way,

the train does not go to the end of the pier,

but it is only a short walk away,

one of the local boats,

setting out to bring back the catch of the day,

I really liked the benches,

there were a few designs for the backs,

but the ends had an inverted anchor as the arm support, neat,

and here we are,

lots of students looking around,

for us,

time for our breakfast,

coffee, cake,

and a hot sausage roll,

delicious!

all of a sudden, the place was deserted,

the school trip had left,

time for pose and a look around,

I guess this jetty is used at low tide,

or maybe it is abandoned? but certainly not by the plovers,

there were so many of them perched there,

a couple more,

for the family album,

I went to have a closer look at the birds,

it is at times like this I could have done with a telephoto lens, but there it is I did not bring one,

where is Alfred Hitchcock when you need him?

one more pose,

and a close up,

and I just had to stand next to the lamp as well,

looking back to the station,

not a soul in sight,

we almost had the place to ourselves,

we started to walk to the end of the pier,

it is just a pity that the sun was not out,

although I have to say with the benefit of hindsight, it was a much better day than tomorrow, but more of that in the second days post,

at the end of the pier is the lifeboat station,

but first a couple of poses,

taking advantage of the decorative bench's,

I am stopping the post here, as there are so many photographs the blog starts to freeze up, if you would like to see the rest of our day please click the 'Older Posts' button at the bottom right of the page, also if like us you like cats, have a look at our second day where we visit a cat café, we just loved the café.