Up the Swanage
Aug. 21st, 2006 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fingertroubleSpent the weekend in Swanage with John. Where? Well exactly, this was Chav-By-Sea or the Seaside That Time Forgot(tm).
I mean it even had (as well as a proliferation of tracksuited yoot, baseball caps and families with obnoxious kids) Punch and Judy and those quaint beach huts. I expect Martin Parr to appear any moment to do a photo-essay on the place.
Well despite that and crazy dash to get there (1 minute bus/train interchange anyone?) on the friday, I had a really good time - walked the 5 miles along the coast to Studland past Old Harry's Rocks (Jurassic rock formations and arches) and onto the naturist beach at Studland...no pictures this time, I promise.
I did take one picture though, of the sign 'Naturists May Be Seen Past This Point' - oh they're advertising it now? I was expecting showing times and admission prices....might have stopped the few with binoculars, FFS...but if you're that bothered or shy you'd not be there in the first place.
The main beach is families/mixed, and the dunes are the gay naturist area...like prairie dogs the men poke their heads out on the little hills and look for signs of interesting men walking by...I had a nice time just walking around and chatted to a few guys, it was very liberating and although stormy the sun was quite hot, until later it got cold and left. Was supposed to meet John there, but proved impossible with John not having a mobile, and the terrain...I have quite a few bites today though, it's swampy near there :-(
Had a good meal on the Saturday night at the Cauldron Bistro - a good find that place, one of those little idiosyncratic restaurants you find but have really good food. The food on Friday was OK, supposedly fillet-steak (err) but really good chips but right on the beachfront, Greek style ( if not for the road) - in fact chip shops were legion in Swanage, along with slightly scary pubs, tat shops and arcades...
Sunday we went to Corfe Castle via the steam railway, which was expensive and not amazing but quite nice. Corfe Castle itself is amazing - originally 11th century, it was blown up by Cromwell's troups after a 3 (!) year siege...sadly the tumbledown keep is too dangerous now, so felt I kind of missed out :-( Corfe Castle you might know from the millions of paintings, it became a gothic/romantic picturesque byword, it does impose on the landscape even today...sadly I expect even that overrated frigging Turner did it, grrr.
So back to London, where it's grey, raining and doesn't at least have the nice clifftop walks to alleviate it...
Going to see Beatiful Thing (stage version) on Wednesday with Kirk, and hopefully seeing A Scanner Darkly later in the week also. Looking forward to that.
I mean it even had (as well as a proliferation of tracksuited yoot, baseball caps and families with obnoxious kids) Punch and Judy and those quaint beach huts. I expect Martin Parr to appear any moment to do a photo-essay on the place.
Well despite that and crazy dash to get there (1 minute bus/train interchange anyone?) on the friday, I had a really good time - walked the 5 miles along the coast to Studland past Old Harry's Rocks (Jurassic rock formations and arches) and onto the naturist beach at Studland...no pictures this time, I promise.
I did take one picture though, of the sign 'Naturists May Be Seen Past This Point' - oh they're advertising it now? I was expecting showing times and admission prices....might have stopped the few with binoculars, FFS...but if you're that bothered or shy you'd not be there in the first place.
The main beach is families/mixed, and the dunes are the gay naturist area...like prairie dogs the men poke their heads out on the little hills and look for signs of interesting men walking by...I had a nice time just walking around and chatted to a few guys, it was very liberating and although stormy the sun was quite hot, until later it got cold and left. Was supposed to meet John there, but proved impossible with John not having a mobile, and the terrain...I have quite a few bites today though, it's swampy near there :-(
Had a good meal on the Saturday night at the Cauldron Bistro - a good find that place, one of those little idiosyncratic restaurants you find but have really good food. The food on Friday was OK, supposedly fillet-steak (err) but really good chips but right on the beachfront, Greek style ( if not for the road) - in fact chip shops were legion in Swanage, along with slightly scary pubs, tat shops and arcades...
Sunday we went to Corfe Castle via the steam railway, which was expensive and not amazing but quite nice. Corfe Castle itself is amazing - originally 11th century, it was blown up by Cromwell's troups after a 3 (!) year siege...sadly the tumbledown keep is too dangerous now, so felt I kind of missed out :-( Corfe Castle you might know from the millions of paintings, it became a gothic/romantic picturesque byword, it does impose on the landscape even today...sadly I expect even that overrated frigging Turner did it, grrr.
So back to London, where it's grey, raining and doesn't at least have the nice clifftop walks to alleviate it...
Going to see Beatiful Thing (stage version) on Wednesday with Kirk, and hopefully seeing A Scanner Darkly later in the week also. Looking forward to that.