A Guide: Bournemouth seaside resort

We're all going on a... summer holiday!!

After a couple of work e-mails and various discussions, it was all arranged and we loaded up 2 cars and headed down to Bournemouth. The journey took 2 hours following the sat nav and the other Sat Nav. The highlight of the journey was watching Anthony cross 3 lanes of traffic, in front of trucks and cars, taking the exit and expecting us to follow. We turned around at the next exit and went back, arriving just 5 minutes after they did.

I loved that the Bournemouth beach resort was exactly as I pictured the English seaside. They had a carousel, pier with rides on the end, those little stripey sheds, ice cream vans, deck chairs and even a lifeguard. You'd never see that on an Irish beach, not even Brittas bay.

We eventually settled on a spot and put down all our towels while David and Anthony marked off our territory by digging a moat around us. We were warned not to disturb this line, under consequence of death. Then we all started blowing up the various inflatables like a beach ball and ring.

Of course, the girls braved the water first. Myself, Liz and Claire went straight into the Portland sea. It took a while to get used to the temperature, but it didn't take long til we were swimming in it. Knowing my luck, while I had my back turned to the on coming waves, one crashes right over my head and goes all down my face. Then, the lads decided to join us, bringing the tube and two spaghetti floats.

We enjoyed throwing a tennis balls, s

wimming, Frisbee, having sword fights with the spaghetti floats and splashing each other, then it was time to try off and bake in the sun. We all sat around laughing, eating and burying Anthony in the sand like a mermaid (see below)

We left the beach stuff back at the car and went for food and to watch the match. After wondering through a park and seeing a giant hot air balloon and a kid with a real snake around his neck, we found a suitable bar. On the way back to the car, we found a yee olde sweet shop and loaded up for the return journey.

Below I've put a few pictures from the trip: