Southend
Friday 8th – Sunday 10th April 2022
Day 1
As Covid-19 hit in 2020 the first thing that was cancelled for us was a weekend at the end of March 2020 to Southend. Steve really wanted to show Vikki all around where he grew up and by early this year we still hadn’t made it.
So a surprise location weekend away for Steve’s birthday took us to none other than Southend. Due to work and children’s activities was nearly 8pm before we headed off. Heading up the M3 and Steve had a bit of a strop with the CarPlay as he was trying to update the map – in the end he ignored it and when it caught up and re-routed we’d saved 23 minutes on the journey which was a bonus!
The hotel had limited parking and as we arrived late we had to pay and park out the front which was annoying but we were lucky to get a space. We checked in and headed out for a drink or two instead of staying at the hotel bar and to see a bit of Southend…after an ‘interesting’ walk consisting of a speeding car, a man covered in blood asking for money and a dodgy dark side street we headed back to the hotel!
We had a couple of nice drinks but the service was utterly awful and they even tried to add 10% service charge on!
The room was nice – with a view of a car park, we love a car park view! However, the TV was a bit of a danger! Steve hit is with the door and Vikki walked into it both nights!
Day 2
While Vikki was in the land of nod Steve got up and headed out to get breakfast coming back with Costa coffees, croissants for him and porridge with fruit and nuts for Vikki – scrummy brekkie in bed to start the day.
We headed for the pier, after a looooong queue for tickets we had a refreshing and somewhat windy walk to the end where we enjoyed a coffee and cake at Jamie and Jimmy’s Cafe.
Next up was Adventure Island, Steve relived his childhood with a walk through the Crooked House (the guy on the entrance was rather surprised that two adults with no children wanted to go through it!!). Vikki felt very queasy after the crazy roller coaster and we both got soaked on the two water rides! Vikki was so wet we made a trip back to the hotel room for a change of clothes before heading to Rayleigh.
We headed off and rather than using the conventional method of following a map Steve decided to ‘follow his gut’ to get there, it ended with a diversion past the college but we got there, parked up and headed for the fish and chip shop.
Very yummy chips purchased and we walked around Rayleigh and headed for the Windmill, where we found a lonely local guide who was more than happy to take on a tour around Rayleigh. We went up the windmill, round the town with Steve and the guide (who’d lived there all his life) reminiscing and finished off walking up the mount.
We then headed back to the hotel, the biggest takeaway from the day was that all these years later Steve remembered all sorts of things, just not which roads were one way and the correct direction to drive up them!!
A lovely evening out with Karl and Vicky-Lee, cocktails to start, followed by the most amazing pies for dinner and then finished off with a drink or two and a flutter at the casino. We left £11 up but that was in no way thanks to Vikki who was utterly awful at gambling!
Day 3
The 2am bedtime lent itself very nicely to a lovely long lie in, Steve popped out for Costa and breakfast again, then we checked out and had a lovely walk along the seafront before heading for a trip down memory lane in Rayleigh for Steve. We parked up at Steve old house and walked all over, seeing schools, shops, parks, playing fields and so many more memorable childhood places for Steve.
We headed home, the inevitable search for a pub wasn’t easy but we found one and despite driving round aimlessly trying to find it and parking quite far away from it we found it and it was really good. However, there was a rather strange Nerd Base shop near it as well as an odd antique market set of shops but lovely surrounding all the same.
Ended the weekend with nice weather, roof off drive which Vikki may have slept for most of!
