United Kingdom - England - Broadstairs

Broadstairs - nestled along the coastline of Kent, Broadstairs is a picturesque town and seaside retreat. It has a sandy beach, charming town center, and was a nice escape after being in London.

What did we do?

Dipped our toes in the sand and walked Viking Bay (the main beach). This is a nice sand beach with colorful beach huts and a promenade lined with cafes and shops. There were even some crazy people in the water.

Strolled around the Town Center. It is loaded with quaint streets, pubs, restaurants, boutiques, and art galleries. AND barber shops and hair salons everywhere. I got a much needed haircut and swear it was Edward Scissorhands who cut my hair.

York Gate

The Boathouse Broadstairs

  

Broadstairs Clock Tower 

Day trip to Canterbury. We took a 40 minute train ride from Broadstairs and took an hour and a half guided tour. It was fascinating! Most of the tour was around the grounds of the Canterbury Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The cathedral is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. 

St Thomas of Canterbury Church

Saint George's Tower
The remains of the Church of
 St George The Martyr

Demons flanked the doorway
to keep witches from flying in

Canterbury Cathedral

Monks would give one glass of
beer through this window after 
the work was completed 

The Canterbury War Horse

After our tour, we walked the medieval streets, lined with timber-framed buildings, cafes, and pubs. We visited the Westgate Towers, one of the city's original gateways and stopped for a bite to eat. We managed to get stuck in the rain (shocking, I know) on our way back to the train station.

Stuck in the rain

Where did we eat?

We picked up lunch to go at the Train Station, not gourmet but it was good. 

Green Salad

Chicken Sandwich

Posillipo Pizzeria food was good and so was the service.

Insalata Caprese
Fresh buffalo mozzarella,
vine tomatoes, basil and olive oil

Tagliolini Di Mare
Fresh black ink Tagliolini pasta with monkfish
and Mussels in a Brandy and saffron sauce
with a touch of cherry tomatoes 

Razza
Fresh skate in lemon and caper sauce
served with butter and parmesan spinach

All the pubs have signs for a traditional Sunday roast so we picked The Charles Dickens. 

We both chose the chicken as neither one of us wanted beef or pork. We probably will not try another Sunday Roast while in the UK. It was okay not spectacular.

Roasted Chicken Supreme 

Served with garlic & rosemary duck fat
roasted potatoes, seasonal vegetables,
yorkshire pudding & roasted jus

For the Fourth of July we decided we wanted to go to a pub and have a burger 🍔 which was the closest we could come up with to celebrate. Right around the corner from our apartment was The American Grill. Perfect! 🥰. Well that didn't work out... they were closed and we couldn't find a Pub that sold burgers. So we ended up going to the number 1 restaurant in Broadstairs -- Please Sir! A fast food smash burger joint. I'm not a smash burger fan and they didn't even sell beer. We got our burgers to go and ate at home. The fries were amazing.

King's Corner Cafe Canterbury -- food and service was very good. Reasonably priced.

Hummus

Crispy Chicken & Avocado Wrap

Home meals

Charcuterie Board

Morelli's Ice Cream -- it was not the best. Small scoops and way over-priced compared to other ice cream we've had.

Where did we stay? We stayed at an AirBnB, Nicola's Place with a view of Viking Bay.

How did we get here? This was an interesting experience. We rode the Southeastern train from St Pancras International Station (London) to Broadstairs. The train was delayed about 40 minutes because of a 'disturbance on the train'. We started traveling to our destanation when a French woman riding next to us asked where we were going. Her sister had told her the train we were riding on was canceled further along. Huh? So I looked at my handy Trainline app and sure enough, about four stops later, all the stops for the rest of the ride were canceled. No announcement. Nothing. So I said, let's just stay on the train and see what happens. At least we'll be getting closer. 

Next stop. A group of rather boisterous Aussies board the train. It's about 1300 and they were drinking beer and feeling no pain. One of the guys was hysterical. He had asked me a question about the ride and when I answered, discovered I was an American. He couldn't believe that an American knew the answer. (He was joking) We had a lot of fun with them. 

Two stops from the 'canceled stops', there was finally an announcement. So we got off, followed by the French woman and the drunk Aussies. Apparently, everyone thought we knew what was going on and what to do. Thirty minutes later, we hopped on another train and made it to Broadstairs.

It was the first day of our 9th month traveling ourseas and we have learned to simply go with the flow when it comes to travel. It always seems to work out and we always reach our destination.. eventually.

When did we visit? 1 - 6 July 2023

We enjoyed Broadstairs. It was very walkable and you can walk/bike a trail along the coast for miles. It's touristy but not a major tourist 'hotspot' and not very crowded.

"It's okay... I have no idea what I'm doing either"