I have been nagging Rob to take me to Southwold for months now. I had heard great things about the unique, seaside town and I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. This year I had some time off work that coincided with the Easter bank holidays. Rob booked a hotel just outside Southwold last minute and we headed up early Saturday morning.
We drove straight to the sea front at Southwold and headed to the pier for a much needed cuppa after our journey. This was our view from the tea shop on the pier....
We were blown away! The tea was lovely and we also shared a posh sausage roll whilst waiting for the lunch menu to open up. The pier wasn't like the usual seaside pier. The cafe we had our tea on was very sweet and quaint. There was also a fish restaurant on pier, traditional fish and chips and some sweet homeware/clothes shops. After our lunch of tasty paninis, we headed down to the beach to check it out.
The beach was huge! We spent some time watching lots of sweet doggies play on the sand. We noticed that the people of Southwold really liked their terriers and Labradors. It certainly made us miss our little Nell, although she was being taken good care of back home by my family. We also ran around in the long beach grass until we tired ourselves out.
Whilst walking we stopped and oogled the amazing beach huts. If I lived near the beach I would just have to get a beach huts. The Southwold huts are certainly on the high end side of beach huts.
After some time walking we reached a little fishing harbour. There were several restaurants and shacks selling the most fresh fish .
Rob opted for the mussels (because he doesn't have any of his own hehe). We sat and ate them by the harbour. The mussels didn't tempt me. However, the whippy ice creams certainly did.
After all that food, it was time to work it off. We went back to the pier to have some fun in the arcade. We also went back on the pier to a room with some frankly, weird amusements. Rob and I had a good laugh in a photo booth that moved around and shone bright lights in our eyes.
We also stumbled across a mini show! Lots of traditional minis showed up and they were certainly our favourites. My favourite was a little green mini. The owners displayed a picture of a couple when they first got the mini - which must have been in the 60s or 70s. The car looked just as amazing that day.
We also visited Southwold High Street and popped into the Adnams Brewery. We picked up a couple of bottles of ale for Dad. There was an amazing vintage shop and I wanted to buy everything. In the end I settled for a vintage measuring glass, which is now on display in our downstairs bathroom. It was a busy day and walked for miles.
We headed to our hotel to freshen up, before going back to Southwold High Street for dinner. After checking reviews, we chose an Italian place called Enzos. I had been craving fresh pizza for weeks and the reviews were amazing. The restaurant was a small, intimate restaurant, which is normally lovely. However, when a family of devil spawn and pissed, unhappy adults that never get out of the house (one of which has the most grating American accent) are seated in the middle of the restaurant it kind of kills the vibe. The service was also bordering on rude several times. The food however was lovely.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel for pudding and drinks. After a few games of cards we were ready to retire for the night. All that fresh air tired us out!
We were up early for a nice breakfast the following day in the hotel. We wanted to make the most of the weekend so decided to head to Aldburgh.
After browsing the second hand book shops we settled down for a cup of strong coffee. We also picked up some yummy sweets - apple and custards for me. There wasn't really much else in Aldeburgh. Lots of shops were closed due to the bank holiday and it was far to cold to sit on the beach. Instead, we hopped back into the car and onto our next destination - Felixstowe!
Felixstowe is the opposite of Southwold. Southwold is all about independent, quirky, but pricey shops. Felixstowe is cheap and cheerful and pretty chavy, but in the best way! The beach isn't as nice so we opted for a game of mini golf - Rob's favourite.
We both had a lot of fun playing mini golf. After we had a little play in the arcade and won a few tokens on the basketball game.
We decided on fish and chips for lunch (of course!), from a restaurant that was highly recommended. The fish and chips were amazing. But we did have to queue for 45 minutes to get them and by that time anything would have tasted good.
After our chips we were ready to head back home to our girl. It was a lovely weekend and I am glad we fitted so much into it. I am really grateful for Rob for suggesting that we get away and booking the fabulous hotel.
