I cycled to Whitstable today. It is about 8 miles from Canterbury and is a hilly cycle which is largely - though not thoroughly - well signed. The weather today was, happily, not icy enough to prevent me from going on what was a longer than I expected expedition. Picture 1 here is at the beginning of the bike ride, looking back over Canterbury, with the Cathedral in the distance.Upon reaching Whitstable, the first-time rider is left to wonder for a while whether he or she has arrived at all and where to turn next. Predictably, of the two choices I was presented with, I took the wrong one initially.
When you eventually find yourself in Whitstable and have determined that the town is indeed Whitstable, you realise what a pleasant sea-sidey place it is. Fish & Chipperies are well patronised by shivering day-trippers and I looked longingly at paper cones that contained hot chips (though I resisted the urge. After a week here - or is it almost two? - I've not eaten out once!).
Whitstable beach is not a sprawling paradisical thing, but is divided into strips of a few metres by lengths of wood (see picture 2) which I presume serve to retain the pebbles or shale (by which I mean medium-sized shards of rock). Obviously, even if the weather lent itself to it, Whitstable beach wouldn't be a pleasant one to lie on and would be hopeless for building sand-castles on. The only kind of person who could make good of it might be an Irish farmer on holidays. He could probably build a nice miniature property-dividing wall with it. Meanwhile, the sea-water is the hue of milky tea but is probably not suitable for drinking.
But there are plenty of pleasant pubs and shops in town where you can, I'm sure, quench a thirst. These are mainly of the typical tourist-beach-town variety. I, however, was cold and wished I could feel my toes and I was also keen to head back to Canterbury before dark. I left at 3.20pm something, and it was already feeling twilighty. It took me an hour to cycle home, which I did so slowly and fairly exhaustedly.
Prolonged cold and physical exertion meant that my plans to do work this evening shall be largely abandoned. Hot soup and cider are now on the cards.
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