Bournemouth 2008

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So we thought we should explore some of the English coastline, Rob did a bit of research and thought that we should go to Bournemouth. We booked our coach tickets and had to wake up at 5.30 to make our way to Victoria Coach Station for our 7am departure, not fun! The bus trip was pretty comfortable, it takes about 3 hours to get there including a boring wait at Heathrow airport. We arrived and the weather looked threatening, and it stayed that way for the whole weekend! It wasn’t so much cold, more so irritating sprinkling rain that doesn’t warrant an umbrella but is just enough to make your clothes damp!

We stayed in a nice apartment a short walk from the town centre and we were lucky enough to get an early check in of 11am. The coastline is beautiful as you will see from Robs pictures (you will notice all our blog pictures are taken by Rob - mine doesn’t seem to be of the same photographic caliber!!), and it has a similar feel to that of some Victorian coastal towns, except every second business is a bar, club or pub! We couldn’t believe that there were so many bars, and then we found out it was a hot spot for people on their hens and bucks nights - something we found out as an actual fact when we headed out for a drink in the evening. There was groups of inebriated men and women with tiaras, lei’s and other wedding paraphernalia dangling around their necks!

One of the “highlights” of Bournemouth was a massive balloon that goes up and down in the park and you can go for a ride in it and get fantastic views of the coastline and surrounding towns. The balloon itself was impressive and we were considering going for a ride, but the wind started to pick up and we were walking some distance away and could see it swaying away with some force (imagine the poor people in it!) and we decided against it…only to find they grounded the balloon after that ride due to the said wind issue!

The next day we got a bus and went to check out the neighbouring town of Christchurch. It’s a well preserved old town with an amazing church some hundred years old. Some of the gravestones were so worn you couldn’t read them anymore and the ones you could read were from the 1700’s!

All in all it was a nice relaxing weekend!

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