Margate to Broadstairs and home to Cambridge

And started early the next morning. It was thankfully gloriously sunny now. I went down for breakfast, and they were singing again. I elbowed through the masses and went into the kitchen. The woman was very apologetic, and offered me breakfast out the back in the sun. It was lovely.

I set off walking back into Margate to get myself a hat, only none of the shops were open at 9.30. So I started my walk to Broadstairs (10 km) with the sun in my eyes, and minimal sunscreen. The first part was on a concrete promenade, then a section of sand, then a lovely grassy slope where I stopped for a breather, then around some cliffs, past a castle, along a road, up a path, down around another road, and up onto some more cliffs, and then I was in Broadstairs.

It couldn't be more different to Margate. It's tasteful, beautiful, happy, and there were hordes of people there for a folk festival (which I had known about but didn't think it'd be so big). There was morris dancing, and music, and kiddies shows and random music, and markets. I bought a hat, had a little walk, then got fish and chips to eat on the beach, and an ice cream. I had lots of time before my bus, so had another little walk towards Ramsgate, but came back to Broadstairs to check out the pier and some of the streets. Pier was boring, streets were nice, but uninteresting. So I went to the markets and bought two skirts. Then I went up the main street to wait for the local bus.

I got on, and had a nice trip back to Canterbury. Thankfully, I got back in time for the coach. The coach driver had a stand-up with some guy who wanted to get on without a proper ticket. Then we got stuck in a massive traffic jam just before the M2, making us 50 minutes late, so I knew I'd miss my connection to Cambridge. Somehow, the driver made up the time later.

We drove into a huge black cloud over London and it started raining again, and I just got to my Cambridge bus at Victoria in time. But it was running late, and that driver had a stand-up with another guy. We left half an hour late. Then we stopped to pick up more people at Stratford, and the driver had ANOTHER stand-up, and had to call head office twice, making us another half hour late. It was painful. Anyway, we got back to Cambridge eventually, and I walked home and crashed. Good bits, bad bits, but all interesting. V glad I went.