Highlights of the day: Bournemouth Beach
Friday, June 14th – During a long trip like this, it’s a good idea to schedule an off-day, with no big plans. Ours was a day-trip outside of the city to Bournemouth beach.
We took the tube to Waterloo station and hopped a train to Bournemouth (2:10 hours).
Once we arrived at the Bournemouth station, it was a 30 min walk to the beach through the town.
We passed a lot of shops, but in the morning most businesses were still closed. It was difficult to find a place open, but we were able to locate a pizzeria.
Extra bonus, they had ice cream with pop rocks.
Most of the beaches in southern England are covered in pebbles, but Bournemouth has plenty of wonderful soft sand. They also have a ferris wheel and a pier (pay to enter) with a zip line.
It was windy and the water was freezing. But that didn’t stop the local Rugby team from throwing on their banana hammocks and going for a dip (background in pic below).
Once we got our fill of sand and ocean, we walked up the hillside through the town to the Westbourne shopping area.
There were only a couple shops worth visiting, not worth the hill-side walk in my opinion.
On the way back, we took the path through the central gardens, which was very much worth the walk. Since this was the first day all week without rain, it was muddy off the path.
The kids raced from bench to bench and even stopped to help a kid that fell off her scooter.
We stopped at the playground for a few hours. I guess there are fewer lawsuits in England, which makes for much more exciting playground features.
We tried not to be the typical “loud Americans” on the playground, but…. well, I guess at least we tried. Fortunately, some local high schoolers came by that were much louder than us.
On the way back to the train station, we walked through the town. The shops that were closed that morning were now bustling with shoppers. But since it was 5pm, they were already closing down for the day.
Kate stopped at a Claire’s and picked up some earrings. Since we walked so much on this trip, we figured this meant that we earned at least one or two ice cream stops (per day).
Finding the bathroom here was quite a challenge. We tried to stop in the Anime store next door, but they had already closed. The only thing still open was a grocery store, so I grabbed some drinks for the train ride.
Once back at the train station, we tried to scan our train tickets from the app, but couldn’t get it to work, so the staff just let us walk through. There were not many people in the station.
Half of our train had arrived, but apparently they had to wait for the remaining half to connect and head back to London.
On the train ride back we met a very “happy” (drunk) guy that had alot to say. There must have been a game nearby since there were many “happy” people on the train.
He talked to us for a bit, then passed out. When the conductor came by, the guy couldn’t find his ticket or remember where he was going, so he pulled out his wallet, bought another ticket and then passed back out.
At some point he must have woken up and wandered away, but left behind his glasses and loose money. Some of the other “happy” people on the train picked it up for him.
That night I went out and grabbed some Mediterranean food, brought it back to the flat. More laundry, then sleep. The next day, we head for Paris.
Gleitz Well Traveled 