Great plan, save that the weather forecast for the weekend turned out to be less than brilliant.
Trip started with a super long train journey down from Grimsby to Bournemouth. 6 hours, to be precise. That said, it wasn't too bad - the tube wasn't busy, the trains all ran on time and I only encountered one weirdo (read: addict of some description) a few stops away from Bournemouth. So far, so good.
Of course, as soon as I left the station building, I got a lovely reminder of that weather forecast. Rain. Rain. Rain. Ugh. Managed to find my way to the town centre (with instruction from Claire) and then on to the Pier for Claire's work summer do. Spent the afternoon drinking rum, running out to the zip line when the rain stopped and trying out the indoor climbing walls.
I've only been climbing once and it was amazing fun, so it was great to have another go at it. Apparently it's still fun. 'Nuff said. I'm not sure how much it costs normally at RockReef, but I think it's probably worth checking out. They have high ropes too, which were great fun even if Claire did get a little bit stuck at one point.
Aside from that, not much to say about the first day of the trip. It ended with muffins and tea at Claire's new flat. Yeah...
Day 2 got off to a much better start - the sun was out! Yay! We'd initially considered going to the Isle of Wight but been told that without a car it would be difficult to get around. Then Claire had found a tour of the Jurassic Coast, which would have been cool had it run on a Saturday and not a Sunday. We could have done the tour on our own, but train and bus connections to Lyme Regis and Charmouth aren't brilliant from Bournemouth.
So we settled instead for a day trip to Weymouth. Train tickets proved to be really reasonably priced (£10.10 return using a railcard), the trains run regularly throughout the day and take just short of an hour to make the trip. Great for us.
First stop, tourist info. Only, we couldn't find tourist info... Managed to grab some leaflets with bus times though. At which point we decided it was lunch time. Quick perusal of timetables over sandwiches suggested that while we could feasibly take a bus to Charmouth and/or Lyme Regis from Weymouth, it would take an hour and a half so most of our afternoon would be spent sitting on a bus.
Decided to catch the bus down to Portland in the end. The bus only runs once an hour from Weymouth, so we made a beeline for a cafe to pass the time. Had a delicious chocolate digestive milkshake. Sounds like it should be gross, actually amazing. If you're in Weymouth, head to Tom & Erin's cafe on the seafront and try it yourself. Seriously good.
Anyhoo, sugar high achieved, we hopped on the bus and instead of going all the way to Portland, hopped off on the causeway and went for a walk down Chesil Beach. Really nice views. Look.
There was also a dead (or dying) jellyfish.
We also found some funky pebbles and made silly faces with them.
I'm not sure we really planned on spending so long on the beach, but it was a lovely day so we lounged around for an hour or so, throwing stones at the sea and inspecting the washed up jellyfish that was just along from us.
Stomachs started grumbling ever so slightly, so we strolled down the causeway to Portland proper. Nice walk, that. Mile and a half or so from the end of the beach to the village. Sadly disappointed to find that there was very little in the way of eateries - at least not as far as we could see. Grabbed a drink instead at a pub and then caught the bus back into Weymouth.
By which point Weymouth was much quieter and we managed to get a table in King Edwards fish and chip shop before the big rush of people turned up for tea. Pretty good, actually. Much better than the last time I ate in Weymouth when the fish cake blatantly came out of a packet. This time I had prawns in filo pastry with some rather excellent chips. Not bad value either - about £8 for the meal and £2 for a pot of tea.
And then it was back to Bournemouth on the train with some very drunk men who were hilarious the entire trip back. The day ended with a lovely cup of tea up on the roof of Claire's flat. Bournemouth's really quite pretty from up there. Great day. More on this trip next time.
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