The day trip to Great Yarmouth was probably doomed first thing in the morning when I visited Trip Advisor to find out the post codes of car parks in the seaside resort. Someone posted a review stating that as Great Yarmouth was one of the lowest lying towns on the coast, the rising sea levels would eventually wipe it out, which would be the best thing to happen to the resort... Hmmm! I suspected that Great Yarmouth would be one of those English seaside places where the Amusement Arcade rules supreme, but Keith was determined to go. One of his mates had said that it had changed considerably since Keith last visited over 30 years ago, so I kept quiet, knowing that if we really hated it, there were other places to see on the Norfolk coast.
At least the journey over to the east coast was a good one, with dual carriageways for the majority of the route which meant we were parking on the sea front at 11am. The weather, which was forecast to be hot and sunny, was warm and overcast and it stayed that way for most of the day, the sun only breaking through the cloud as we made our way home!
First stop was a cup of coffee at a little cafe right on the seafront. They were doing a brisk trade and it was very pleasant sitting outside in the warmth. Ahead of us was the Britannia Pier with its theatre (some big names appearing), pub and amusement arcade at the very end. We quickly realised that Great Yarmouth was very adept at parting people from their money. The children wanted to go on the dodgem cars so they had to go and buy some tokens which were £1 each. To ride the dodgem cars was 3 tokens for each car and of course my competitive two had to have their own dodgem! Whilst we waited for them to finish whizzing around and hitting each other, we looked at the other amusements and I have to admit it was a sad little place. There was a ghost train, a log ride and loads and loads of grabber machines with flourescent cuddly toys. The pub looked seedy and I shuddered to think what it would be like to spend a week here. However, for parents with very young children the beach was fantastic - miles of sand and dunes and if the weather's good, what more would you need? The resort is not for me but there were plenty of people enjoying themselves.
After the children finished on the dodgems, we walked further into the resort where the aim to part visitors from their money started in earnest. The whole of the front was a gaudy line of amusement arcades, restaurants and hotels. On the beach side were more attractions (Joyland), an American diner surrounded by vintage cars and the Pirates Cove miniature golf. We took the little train that runs down to the Pleasure Beach, just over a mile away, and we passed a Sealife centre and a miniature model village so there's plenty to do and see if you're into that sort of thing. We also passed a long line of horses and carriages who were busy ferrying people up and down the coast road.
We decided to have a game of miniature golf before lunch so we spent an enjoyable couple of hours on the 18 hole course. It wasn't cheap (£24 for the four of us) but it was fun and there had been a lot of thought in the design with landscaped gardens and little notices telling us all about pirates, which were useful to read when we were in a queue and waiting to take our shots!
We were amazed to find, when we finished, that the parking ticket on the car was due to run out so we sped back without having lunch in the resort. We'd planned on having fish and chips (no shortage of places to choose from) but decided to push on to Caister just up the coast. This proved to be very quiet so we drove on to Hemsby which promised to be a little larger. Unfortunately, it was one of the worst places I've ever had the misfortune to visit in my beautiful country, stuffed full of tacky arcades, awful holiday chalets on the outskirts with the incongruous name of "Bel Air" and row upon row of cheap bars, cafes and gift shops.
We quickly made an escape and feeling very hungry by now, drove onto Winterton-on-Sea which was wonderful. Winterton is just a small village but has a gorgeous beach backed with sand dunes, a large car park and a lovely little cafe selling sandwiches, soup and cakes. We had a sandwich and then the children paddled in the sea while Keith and I sat on the dunes and watched. The children came back to us, excited that they'd seen seals in the sea and indeed, there is a seal colony just up the coast. There were lots of families on the beach all enjoying a day by the sea and the whole character of the place was completely different to loud and brash Great Yarmouth just down the coast!
After an ice-cream we headed back and called into the pub for a quick drink before going home. It had been a great day but I'm not sure any of us would head back to Yarmouth again!
Winterton-on-Sea
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