The first was Clacton-on-Sea in Essex. There are numerous jokes about it (a bit like Cleveland, I suppose) but it's undergone some serious overhauling over the years I've been going there. Within the past few years the beaches have been reclaimed - not many years ago, in most places the water came right up to the seawall with no beach at all. Many of the seawalls have been fortified (some are still in the works) the "pleasure pier" has been upgraded and there are several good places to eat near the sea front. And the gardens are beautifully kept.
After leaving Clacton, we headed down to Margate. We'd found an AirBnB there. It was a flat on the third floor of a Victorian house that overlooked the harbor. It had a full kitchen, complete with a washing machine and a dishwasher. We could open the balcony doors while we sat at the table to eat. It also had a living room, bedroom and bathroom. The only drawback was the three flights of stairs. The lack of air conditioning wasn't a problem because we could open the balcony doors and the bedroom windows and the breezes would come right through.
Walking to restaurants and pubs was easy, although we made pretty good use of the kitchen to make salads and lighter meals. Here's the view from the balcony.
We also made a trip over to Ramsgate. This is the town where Mark's mother grew up. We spent a day there.
We spent two days in Broadstairs. One of Mark's aunts lived there when he was growing up. It's where he spent many summers. We didn't go in and out of the caves he explored as a boy, but we did wander around the town, and sit on the seafront just to watch the people and dogs. It still has one of it's medieval gates in tact and it has an excellent restaurant (primarily seafood) that has absolutely amazing food. (We'd been there a few times before so we had lunch there both days.) I've included a photo of their avocado shrimp tower in addition to pictures of the town and beach.
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