Weston Super Mare

We spent a lovely day here on Tuesday. This was a trip down memory lane for me. When I was 7 years old my Aunt Isobel and Uncle Doug moved to Weston and Dad drove Mum and I down there for the holidays twice if not three times. This was a really long drive for a man who basically drove from Balloch to work in Dumbarton and on holidays usually to Oban (a road he knew like the back of his hand).

In the 45 years the town has no doubt changed but my overriding memories are of riding a donkey on the beach (I had to have Monty he was so gentle) and visiting the model village and also walking over the beach with the muddy sand squishing between my toes. 

It was also one of the only places where we have a family picture of me with Mum and Dad and my sister and brother in the same photo. Ian and Helen were working in the south of England and travelled to Weston to see us. My Uncle must have taken the shot and it is a treasured possession. When your brother and sister are 15 and 12 years older than you you don't have many family holidays together that you can remember. By the time I was 6 they had both left home.

We saw the sign for donkey rides but the animals themselves were not around on a Tuesday in September. I worked out where I thought the model village had been and found a local who confirmed my thinking but explained it had gone years ago. However Robin and I loved the wide promenade for walking the length of the town and the lovely new pier as well as this older derelict one you can see in the photo. We are big fans of "The Cafe" the sitcom based in Weston and we managed to work out where the Cafe had been sited  by looking up stills from the programme and identifying the buildings in the distant background.

We had a lovely day, a trip down memory lane and a little taste of summer again.