BEACH COMBING

Half term holidays started and the boys, Samuels friend and I zoomed to the coast. I gave the boys our budget of £80 for the weekend and it was up to them to spend it wisely so that we could eat, sleep and play - they had the responsibility of holding the purse strings. First stop - Basti's grandparents in their quaint seaside village. He never throws anything away, with 8 cars in the front garden, she embarassed and rarely has people to their house. Did we care? Sam & Basti walked alone to the local shop with purse clutched in hand to buy Grandpa's favourite biscuits. We then had a cup of tea in the special china and a lovely chat. My boys never get to be around that generation and it was REALLY nice!

Then it was on to Margate, the most south western point of Britain. We took our shoes off and combed the beach, collecting a wine bucket full of interesting things including a shark egg, interesting patterened china, pretty sea glass and loads of shells and interesting shaped chalk rocks. We had intended to stay here but the hostel was full, so we continued along the coast to Broadstairs. Checking out all the charity shops, picking up some cheap food - bread rolls, bananas, 2 for 1 bottles of water etc (tight budget). This town is where Charles Dickens lived over looking a lovely little harbour from a high cliff.

Then we followed our noses and ended up at a Dutch windmill, then on to a Roman ruins a Fortress site with walls etc, which turned out to be the first place that the Romans landed in Britain. Very interesting for the older boys since they studied the Romans recently. All along this coast there are old castles and we stopped to look at a big viking ship.

We ended up in Dover, where all the ferries arrive from the continent. We admired the big castle on the top of the white cliffs, ate chips for dinner (£1 per person) and watched the twinkling lights. Then into our hotel room, including hotel smell - so exciting! Crazy crazy boys bounce off walls for about an hour before we settle down for the night.

Basti was sick the next morning, so instead of looking through the castle that has lots of wartime tunnels under it, we had to come home. The kids are now expert on knowing all the European abbreviations for the trucks, including the tricky ones: D = Germany, HR = croatia, CH = Switzerland, E = Spain. It is amazing how much traffic comes from other countries along that road! We had fun times - Poor Basti spent his entire holiday week very sick in bed.