My birthday celebrations

I decided to head out of London to celebrate this year and go to Kent for a long weekend.  Stu and Kris joined Ollie and I for the trip to Margate, right by the sea. The town has quite a rough recent past but is up and coming, so I was keen to check it out. There are some great little pockets of the town to explore which we really enjoyed.

We took the fast train down on Friday night and after checking into our great little apartment we headed straight to dinner at Wyatt & Jones in Broadstairs. We all had an excellent chateaubriand for dinner followed by a few drinks in a local pub.

On Saturday morning after breakfast at Be Beached on the Harbour Arm, Kris and I had a wander around the shops in the old town while Stu & Ollie watched an apparently very important rugby game. We then moved onto Dreamland, a refurbished theme park from the 50s, for an afternoon of rides. It was lots of fun! We stopped for a quick drink at a bar back on the Harbour Arm for the last of the sun. Dinner was at a tiny little seafood restaurant called Hantverk & Found. My crab starter and roast sea bass were excellent. We had a last drink at the LifeBoat pub before heading home.

The Harbour Arm of Margate's harbour, the tide's out

Mrs Booth statue

Margate old town

Dreamland!

First up, the carousel

Margate's one and only high rise is an unfortunate eyesore

I didn't win a donut

View over Margate from the ferris wheel

On the Ferris Wheel

Coming down the Helter Skelter

The gang at Dreamland

The lighthouse

Down by the shore

Turner Contemporary Gallery

The gang at Hantverk & Found

Crab at Hantverk & Found

We had a late breakfast at Fort Cafe the next morning and then walked down to the Turner Contemporary Gallery to see the 'Seeing Round Corners' exhibition that was on. It's a small gallery but has clearly accelerated the town's resurgence and the exhibition was interesting and well curated. Then it was on to the weird and wonderful Shell Grotto, an underground cavern lined with millions of sea shells discovered back in 1835. Stu & Kris headed back to London late that afternoon, while Ollie and I went to a local cinema, walked home along the coast, and had a quiet night with takeaway for dinner back in the apartment.

Shell Grotto

Along the Kent coast

Beach huts at dusk

I woke up on Monday to presents and phone calls for my birthday. We were planning a bike ride but it was overcast and I lingered over my gifts a little too long. We took a taxi to Whitstable for a lovely lunch at Whitstable Oyster Company, a seafood restaurant right on the beach. We had a great meal - English champagne and local oysters to begin with, mussels and a bottle of Chapel Down dry white wine, and meringue with fruit with a yummy dessert wine to finish.

Birthday Lunch at Whitstable Oyster Company

Let's begin!

Mussels!

Dessert

Birthday gifts galore!

Afterwards we had to race back to make our return train to London. The best part about coming back home was the pile of presents still waiting for me there! A great birthday weekend all round!