It’s day 61 already.
I am on the homeward stretch and still loving it.
One of my sisters is a fan of Blackpool and I was looking
forward to going there....I really tried to like it.
There is no parking in the town centre so it cost me £5 for
three hours – nearly as bad as Brighton.
Parking attendant Dan BP117 told me what I ‘must see and do’
in Blackpool.
Most of it was at the Tower.
It’s all very well making your town centre pedestrian only.
You get money from the car parking and usually it makes a quieter and more
pleasant experience for shoppers. Not here it doesn’t.
Every tourist attraction was vying for custom by having someone
with a microphone or a tannoy system blaring their different offerings over the
shoppers. Ghastly racket!
I have never seen so many ‘pound’ shops so close together. It
speaks volumes about the economics of the area. There were even pound shop
versions of food and cafes
Everything was a ‘bit too much for me’
The bling....
The horse and carriages....
Three ‘gypsy’ fortune tellers all within a few yards of one
another and all using very similar names
Three piers...
And nothing I could eat. It was all fast food, fried and
fake. Chips, candy floss and beefburgers.
The world famous Blackpool illuminations don’t happen in the
summer. It’s a winter thing when it’s dark. To be fair Blackpool bills itself
as a family seaside resort, and also actively encourages hen nights and stag
dos. It isn’t trying to be anything else. It may have by-laws against drunks in
the street ,but the pubs were doing a roaring trade at 10am in the morning and I
saw lots of drunk women clutching blow up ‘male’ dolls shrieking in the street, and no one paying a blind bit of notice. Business as usual perhaps?
What did it have that I did like?
Trams
I haven’t seen donkey rides on the beach anywhere else and I thought that had long gone out of fashion but they were here.
The Wedding Chapel was interesting too although I can’t
truthfully say I liked it.
It’s a modern building on the seafront attached to
tourist information, and in its first year as a registry office, they had 600
weddings. Okay, I thought it was hideous.
The famous beaches were wonderful. Sandy and wide and clean.
However I thought the place was horrible overall. Sorry
Blackpool I tried but I far prefer Morecombe by light years.
There is something about Yorkshire. I like it. I went to Helmsley off piste on my way up the East Coast and now impulsively I have done it again.
Blackpool was flattening all my batteries. I set myself the target to enjoy Blackpool and sadly just failed to reach that target. To add insult to injury it was 3pm and I realised that for the first time on this trip I had got my dates muddled and my Blackpool host was not expecting me until tomorrow. I had nowhere to stay.
I now had a choice;
a) I could find a new Bed and Breakfast and stay in Blackpool for another day and night
Or
b) I could run away and have a day off
No contest really - option b.
In the car park where I did at least have an on/off phone signal, I booked myself into Harrogate 75 miles east of Blackpool and set off.
I remember Harrogate fondly. When I was a deputy head teacher in Eastbourne, my children won the National Patchwork Championships two years in a row and the Head and I travelled to Harrogate to receive the trophies. I had not been back since. It would be nice to revisit. Anywhere would be nice away from Blackpool.
I was fortunate that the Middletons could have me stay at such short notice. (No, not those Middletons, far more interesting ones.)
Stephen and Qiuying and their daughter Honey live in a huge and beautiful house in the best part of Harrogate with Baxter a golden retriever. Stephen has a passion. He collects trains – not model trains – real ones. He spends all his time and energy restoring vintage trains to working order, some of which are famous. You can see what I mean on his website www.statelytrains.com
His enterprising Chinese wife runs her businesses from home. On my arrival she made me a wonderful Chinese supper and then took me and the dog for a long walk through Valley Gardens and the RHS woodlands near their home.
That put me back together again. Tomorrow I have a whole day off with no fish and chips in sight---hopefully.
