Whitstables

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Saturday 14th July after going to the coolest and cheapest show we have been to so far (£15/$29 nzd tickets each to The Great Gatsby - an immersive theatre so your part of the crew so I 100% recommend wearing 1920s clothes like they asked...and we didn't do!) we decided that London was going to be unbearably hot the next day and we were in serious need of getting to the seaside or at least somewhere with some water! Nick, Lews workmate suggested a place on the seaside called Whitsable to us which is in Kent, South East England which would take us an hour and 20 minutes by train to get there. Tickets were reasonably cheap since there seemed to be a deal to encourage people to get out that way at £40.65 ($78.50 nzd) return for two of us. We were sorted and excited to be getting out of the city for a day! Sunday morning came around and our train was leaving London Victoria at 9am which got us into Whitstable at 1030am. Eden had decided to spend the day at home so we just had Sam joining us and we met him at the train station. The train journey was pretty short but it allowed us all to catch up on some Netflix whilst admiring the countryside passing by. Once we arrived we walked a short distance down to the waterfront and a cute harbour appeared before us with small huts selling goods nestled together. We wandered along the path passing by the surf lifesaving boat which was a massive contraption and caught the boys attention for awhile as it was backed it in and out of the garage. Sam hadn't had breakfast and I had been up since 5am anyway (the issue with coming off nights is you get very hungry when your supposed to be asleep!) so we decided to get an early lunch before parking ourselves on the beach for the day. Whistable is known for its oysters and the Whitstable Oyster Company can trace its origins back to the 1400's as one of the oldest companies in Europe. However, Whistable oysters go even further back to Roman times when they were discovered and quickly became a delicacy that was hastily shipped back to Rome. The boys were not so keen on this being an early morning snack for us all and Lew gagged at the though of it despite having never tried them! We settled for something similar having being deprived of them for so long since so far we haven't had any where decent yet and that is the good old fish n chips. There were multiple shops selling them and they all promised to be the best in town. We chose one that was at the Whitstable Yacht Club and a local man behind us confirmed that this place was indeed the best in town as he had tested them all out yet he comes back to this place without fail. Perfect! The day was heating up and we tried to sit in the shade whilst we waited. They didn't take long but man were they worth the wait. The fish was cod and was so fresh with the batter on the outside being crunchy and thin. I would even go as far to say its better than majority of fish n chips I have had at home and surprisingly it didn't repeat on us all day like they usually do. Once we had filled our stomachs we decided now was the time to find ourselves a spot of the beach. The beach was made up of pebbles of multicolours and definitely nothing like the Abel Tasman but we walked down to Tankerton Beach heading towards the flags. The beach is divided into sections by large wooden breaks called groins which is pleasant as we were able to shelter away from the wind and it also felt less busy making it into multiple smaller beaches. It felt very traditionally English with white bodys sprawled out and people smoking. Lew of course was very keen to get in the water but had to wait awhile for his sunblock to dry getting antsier by the minute. The water turned out to be freezing cold and I stayed on the beach reading whilst the boys tried to race out to the far buoys of the swimming area but the current was too strong and they didn't get very far. There seemed to be some sort of festival at the top of the hill which Lew and I decided to check out and it ended up being the Classic Music and Motors car show with rows and rows of beautiful cars lined up. We purchased some fresh strawberries and snacked on these as we made our way down the collection admiring their shiny paint and well manicured interiors. Of course there were some incredible old Porsches and Lew declared that my dads next project should be locating a 356 Porsche Roadster that they can both work on together. Forever a dreamer he is! Sounds ridiculous but the smell of the leather interior of these Porsches reminded me so much of my dads car at home and gave me such an overwhelming sense of relaxation and homesickness! At least Lew shares the same love of them that I do so no doubt we will own one in the future (fingers crossed anyways!). The view from the bank was stunning and the pebbles made it look as though the beach was golden sands below us with small beach huts lined up along the edge of the beach. We finally returned to Sam after at least an hour and Lew went back in for a swim before we had to leave to catch the train. Sam had noticed he had lost a jandal and wanted to run back to the fish n chip place to check it wasnt there and Lew and I made our way to the train station. It was stinking hot with the wind gone and we really wonder why we were leaving as the station was busy when we all arrived. We noticed the trains leave every hour and we decided to head back down to the water for a swim in another spot which Sam said had a pier we could jump off. I was boiling at this stage and the harbour we were swimming in was much more sheltered from the wind and felt warmer so we all went in for a splash. The boys enjoyed jumping off the pier and after another 30 minutes in the water we fast walked back to the station in our togs to catch the train home. We were so short of time we had to remove our wet togs in the train bathrooms. We got back into London at 8pm feeling sticky from the salt and sunblock but full of fresh air and adventure. It was an excellent day out and if you are wondering where to go on a day trip from London I would highly recommend Whitstable!

This is the Porsche hes so keen to have as a do up with my dad

This was too funny not to take a photo of

ShannenJuly 14, 2018Whitstable, Oysters, Porsche