Sunday, July 23, 2006
But why's the rum gone?
We headed out to Whitstable this morning to have a look around the Oyster Festival.
As is normal for us, we left fairly early in an attempt to avoid getting bogged down in traffic and made good time. It was a nice little drive, a straight zoom up the A2 and M2. One day when we get a sat-nav we'll be more adventurous and try the back roads a bit, but for now a straight road is just super. We discovered that Little White Dog freaks out if I take the jeep past 75mph, as evidenced by the flying leap he took over the backseats to land unceremoniously on Lizzy's lap, quivering. I think it's the tyre-rumble that gets to him- theres an unmistakable drone that vibrates through the car over 70 mph, probably because the tyres a bit wider than standard.
Anyhoo, we got there 10a.m as planned, parked and strolled off towards the harbour (£2.10 for a whole day's parking- bargain!). There was a nautically themed market, and joy of joys, stall after stall selling (cheap!) seafood :)
The jazz band struck up as we strolled away from the harbour to take a peek down the high street... quite a few interesting shops, and best of all it hasn't lost local character, in that it hasn't been taken over by the bland chain stores that dominate so many of the UK's towns. I also discovered that the missus doesn't know who Peter Cushing is. Tsk tsk. Time to add some classics onto our blockbuster list.
We ambled along, having nothing to actually do and the whole day to do it in, and wound up back at the harbour where I indulged in a snack of a dozen fresh oysters (they were still crying for their mama when I sucked 'em down) and some whelks and prawns.
By now, the place was filling up with people rapidly, including the unavoidable coachloads of our Oriental friends and the purple rinse brigade. We made another circuit of the market, had some more whelks (well, I did anyway), marvelled at the drift wood sculptures, railway sleeper furniture, ceramics, local artists, the Victorian mechanical accordion and the ranks of salty sea-dogs that make Whitstable their home. I tried to slip "Avast" into any conversation I had but no one seemed to notice.
We headed to the Easy Quay restaurant and the adjoining bar, where we wound up spending a very agreeable hour or two, beer in hand, sitting under a very spacious brolley with a cool sea-breeze to make everything quite pleasant. The fish & chips from the restaurant was a bit disappointing, considering the freshness of the ingredients, but I've had worse. Next time I'll have the mussels rather than the skate. LWD enjoyed the batter immensely.
We bought ice creams from one of the vans near the harbour exit and headed up the little hill to visit Whitstable castle, which turned out to be more of a decorated house than my idea of a castle... it had been hired for a wedding, so we didn't hang around too long, heading back to the jeep for the drive home. A quick pit stop on the high street so Lizzy could grab us a big bag of cherries for pudding with Sunday lunch and Whitstable started fading on the horizon.
When we left, there was a helluva queue of traffic just sitting there, trying to get into the town. I think next year we'll be back, but we'll stay overnight to make the most of it. I quite fancy visiting that beachfront pub again- I liked that, I liked that a lot.
Thanks for the tip-off Cheezy!
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