At the beach...in the snow...fun times!!!

Bruges

Bruges


Snow on the beach

Southend pier

After leaving Scotland on yet another overnight bus (I like these, they allow you to travel, and still have the day to explore, albeit as a bit of a zombie depending on how much you have slept), I headed down to Southend-on-sea to visit my mums pen pal. Didnt sleep much on the bus, as the person next to me was taking over my seat, and so I was left with the 3/4 next to the window, not really enough to allow much sleep of any sort.

After making down to Southend, I eventually got the right number of Marie, and let her know I was there. She came and met me at the station, and we wandered down to the famouse Pier, Southends one claim to fame. Unfortunately, it had been snowing down over the whole of the UK (I was lucky to be able to get down from Scotland at all), and when we got to the pier, found that we couldnt use the lift as it was "closed due to adverse weather condtions" When we made it down the very icy steps to the pier it was also "closed due to adverse weather conditions". We couldnt even go up to the viewpoint....yup you guessed it "due to adverse weather conditions". We had a wander round the side to the edge of the beach to look at it instead, and I took my photos to prove I had been there, even if I couldnt walk on it. While walking along the edge of the beach, it began to snow again-mmm in the snow at the beach, who doesnt like that. Not that we could see any water the tide was that far out.

After heading round to a fishing village to have a look at the lovely old houses and buildings there, we headed back to Maries for a bit of a catch up, before I had to catch a train back up to London. Thank you very much for the day Marie and Bob, it was lovley to meet you both!!!

Back in London, I checked my email, only to see those dreaded words again..."due to adverse weather conditions, the Eurostar will be running on a reduced timetable until Sunday 10th January. We advise you to cancel or change your booking" Those are words I have come to hate. Luckily I was only staying about 50 meters from the station, so headed over to check if there was any way I would be able to get a train tomorrow, and was told to come at my normal checkin time, and they would put me on the first train, as I already had booking in Belgium.

So Saturday came with me at the station at 6.30 am, thrilled to find out that my train was actually running-although there may be some delays...who cares, as long as I could get over to Belgium. Eventually made it Brussels, took an hour longer than it was supposed to as they had to reduce speed due to the weather, than after another hours wait for my next train, I finally made it to Bruges-was begining to wonder if I would ever make it with the wonderful weather over here.

Spent today sightseeing in Bruges, it is a fantastic little city, lovley old buildings, canals, chocolate, waffals, fries. Was planning on going to a chocolate museum, see some ice sculptures and go on a canal cruise, but the museum is closed for 2 weeks, and opens in 5 days (kinda random????), the ice sculptures have closed early as the roof collapsed and crushed them (bugger), and the canals are all covered in ice so no cruises....did manage to find some lovely windmills to look at though. Drowned my sorrows by eating lots of lovely handmade Belgium chocolates and nice warm waffals.