Last weekend The Days Off In My Bank Holiday decided to have some TIME OFF i.e. not just do loads of JOBS at home but actually relax a bit. In order to help this cunning scheme along we decided to go on a DAY TRIP and, as it was only an hour and ten minutes away via the Javelin we thought we might go and have a look at RYE.
Short version: it was all right. Slightly longer version: it felt like the sort of place that should have an enormous cathedral or Fascinating Legend and allied Museum but it didn't. The cobbled streets and pretty houses were all very nice, but it felt like there should have been something around which they were all prettily gathered. On the plus side, this meant that we could walk around the Nine Point Plan of Rye (an EXCELLENT document provided by the Tourist Information Centre), stopping for relevant a) historic towers and b) historic pubs as necessary and STILL be all done in a couple of hours.
As we were so far ahead of schedule The Points Of Interest On My Tourist Map suggested we go to Camber Sands. She'd spotted it on the map and we'd got a bus timetable at the aforesaid Tourist Info so off we went, ploughing through the Fenland-ish landscape (apart from the hills, obvs) until we drew up outside an oddly familiarly building. For LO! It was PONTINS, site off the Bowlie Weekender what I went to approx 300,000 years ago, looking EXACTLY the same as it had done back then! We couldn't go in, of course, so we did something I manifestly failed to do all those years ago i.e. go to the BEACH!
Ooh, it was lovely - huge sand dunes then a beautiful open beach full of people and dogs and fresh air. We strode along, we bounced up and down dunes, and generally had a Healthy and Pleasant time. To make the whole thing a pretty perfect day out we got the bus back to Rye and only had a short wait for our train, speeding us home. If you're ever thinking of a trip that way I'd highly recommend going to Camber, and maybe Rye if they manage to build a Cathedral between now and then!
Good old Pontins. My cousin used to work there in the summer. The jugs of beer were made up of all the drip tray dregs. posted 10/4/2015 by Matilda velevitch
