Tuesday 30 June 2009

Bournemouth concert and trip away

Our day began around 10am, we were planning an earlier start but due to our friends inviting us out the night before and two bottles of wine later, decided to leave a little later!!

Coffee in the flask sandwiches made we set off. The journey took longer than anticipated took over three hours, the traffic was really bad, and it didn't help getting lost in bournemouth LOL. We reached our hotel around 1.30pm unpacked then went for a nice dip in the swimming pool, spent the next hour unwinding by the pool.

Seemed like we were wasting the short time we had in bournemouth so off we headed for the sea front, our hotel was way up the cliff great view when we reached the path down of the pier and seafront, did not seem that far so walked all the way along and had a lovely ice cream.

Seemed like i had stepped back 40 years with the pier, candy floss and the smell of donuts all around, it was just like the holidays that i went on as a child with mum and dad. The sun had brought everyone out to bournemouth that day. Had a walk on the pier then headed inland and got a little lost again LOL we were trying to find the winter gardens but somehow missed them found the lower gardens instead.

The time was getting on so we decided on an early dinner found a lovely italian place where i had a stonebaked pizza with parma ham Mmm delicious,Tony had a steak as he is now not allowed pizza (he is ceoliac) nice glass of pino grigio to help it along. Brought us to around 6.00pm, headed back to the hotel for a shower before the concert.

Our concert venue was only 5 mins away, got to our seats and the main man arrived on stage at 8.00pm he was brilliant did some new material but did so many old songs that the crowd were singing along to including me (luckily i was being drowned out). he did the first hour or so then we had 1/2 break he came back on and played until 10.45pm so i think we had our monies worth. His voice may be a little deeper but my god can he still sing. Excellent concert !!
On leaving the concert hall i was not ready to retire to the hotel i had spotted a cocktail bar earlier in the day so we headed for that, all the lights were on on the pier as we sat sipping a pina- colada , well me anyway tony had a glass of red. Another little walk and we found a little bar still open with seats outside i am making the most of my night away so another glass of wine was had before i went to bed at the hotel. A good day.
Day two not so good weather had changed for the worse very overcast but still warm, so after breakfast decided to head for town again, my god i did some walking in the two days i was there thought cornwall was hilly but it has nothing on bournemouth!!! both feeling a bit jaded we sat for a coffee whilst a young man was playing an obo very relaxing. Tony decided he wanted to make a move so we picked the car up and headed to poole but guess what we got lost again, the air was blue by this point as you can imagine, we never did make it so we headed for the A35 instead and homeward bound we came, bit of a shame really but i did have a good concert which was the main reason for going, and a night away with no cooking YAY !!!


The little beach huts all so well kept and most being used

This was how crowded the beach really was. Everyone enjoying
the day out in the sun


The end of the pier, a real old fashioned one. No i didn't go on it!!


Taken from the cliff top near our hotel the walk was a lot further than it looked must have been a mile or so. Lovely view though! And it was a glorious day

These were taken in the lower gardens the plants in the background were very unusual i thought, almost like palm trees.

This was the our getting lost point you could see it from a long way off, we just headed downwards most of the time. No i didn't go on this either!!! i probably would have done if there had been more time. ( thats my story anyway)

The terraced lower gardens were very pretty so many different plants and flowers. The upper gardens were much the same, very well maintained.









5 comments:

Tricia Ryder said...

Wow - that was some weekend J. Glad you had such a good time - and didn't have to cook but could just enjoy :D

Your pics of Bournemouth brought back some family holiday memories!!

The Quacks of Life said...

good trip then

avalon said...

Tricia: Glad it brought back some memories for you :D Pizza was yum as well LOL

Pete: Once i got there yes. Sunday not so good !!!!

oldcrow61 said...

It sounds like you had a great time and enjoyed one of my favorite things...pizza and wine, lol. The lower garden looks lovely.

avalon said...

OC; Thanks the lowere gardens were beautiful and so colourfull this time of year