Shell Grotto

It was supposed to be a wet day today, so we opted for inside things to do. We first visited the Hornby Museum, now called WonderWorks, in the old factory building.  We had fun looking at Airfix models, train sets and Scalextric.  There was a track we could play with so we had a go and marvelled at the fact that the cars stayed on the track more than they used to thanks to a magnet on the bottom. The Back To The Future Delorean was particularly good at not coming off the tracks! (First extra)  They also had a train set including a new 2023 controller with an app running on a tablet and bluetooth to control the trains.  Modern technology!

We had a good chat to a Welsh bloke the on the way out, who had come several times and bought a train each time.  He told good stories about refurbishing an old Hornby model from the 1930s, and visiting someone in Florida who sold a concrete company and now collects cars of all sizes - from full size to models, with a house full of them all.

From there we drove into Margate, and planned to have a good look around the Turner Contemporary Gallery.  This idea was quickly scuppered when it turned out they were shut apart from the shop and cafe so they could change over exhibits.  Thankfully their cafe did a great foccacia cheese toastie.

We had a quick walk further up the coast instead, taking in the old disused Lido (second extra) and lots of other disused things, including the old Winter Gardens theatre.

After a brief stop at the car to dump our camera bags we headed the other way to find Shell Grotto.  This is a 100 foot long cave under a house in a back street that is covered in shells from floor to ceiling.  (Main blip + third extra).  No one knows who created it, or why, the story goes that it was discovered in the 1830s during renovation of the house.  

After a good look around we headed back to the car and drove further up the coast, stopping at Kingsgate Bay for a cup of tea before walking to Botany Bay and back and then exploring Kingsgate Bay a little.

We then drove through to Sandwich for a walk around, mostly photographing doors (last extra) and then had a lovely pizza in The Drill Hall.  We shared a pizza so had enough room left for a desert pizza - pizza dough with Nutella on top, served warm and topped of with a couple of scoops of salted caramel gelato.  We brough half it back to the cottage to eat another day.