Blog: A Midi-Break To Weymouth

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Last week The Days Of My Leave and I took a MIDI-BREAK (that's what we're calling it - remember where you heard it first when MADONNA or someone is claiming to have invented it) for four nights down in Weymouth. Short Version: It was BRILLO.

We stayed in a delightfully chic little boutique hotel called THE PREMIER INN on the seafront which turned out to actually really BE near the seafront. The nice thing about staying in one of these chain hotels is that, if you've been before, they feel HOMEY. Also, with the best will in the world, you're NOT risking a stay in a funny smelling pokey Traditional B&B run by LOONIEZ, as I have had occasion to do occasionally On The Road. ALSO also there is guaranteed to be a Brewers Fayre next door which, in this case, was perfectly delightful with a surprising range of BEERZ.

We were there for three full days which we filled by doing a TONNE of things. On our first day we ventured into Weymouth itself to try and find the Tourist Information Centre. There is NOT a Tourist Information Centre in Weymouth and my advice would be to avoid mentioning this to the locals as they are NOT happy about it. "There used to be one..." they say, looking AGGRIEVED. We went and got a map from the nearby Pavilion instead and then went on The Skyline, which is a big POLE with a ring around it that you sit in, go up, do two revolutions looking at the view, then come down again. It was Quite Good.

We then had a BEER in The Ship, which I was excited to discover was a Hall & Woodhouse pub selling BADGER beer i.e. My Favourite. That done it was time for the main business of the day which was a might HIKE across country (via a castle, a cove, and quite a lot of crows) to Chesil Beach which was AMAZING. It's ENORMOUS! And full of PEBBLES! I'd read about it beforehand (and read the Ian McEwan book too) but nothing had prepared me for the AWESOMENESS of it all. It's HUGE! And made of PEBBLES!

We got the bus back to the hotel that night, and I must say I was RIGHT impressed by the buses of Weymouth. There were LOADS of them, going SUPER regularly and featuring SMILING bus drivers who even SPOKE to us. After so many year of London bus drivers this came as a bit of a shock!

The second day found us having a DEAD nice breakfast in a cafe perched atop beach huts before walking in the opposite direction to the day before, away from Weymouth and out to Bowleaze Cove, which was RIGHT nice. We saw a Roman Temple, a LOT of the seaside, an oddly MEDITERRANEAN Art Deco Hotel called The Riveria (which looked VAST from miles away but was tiddly up close) and then discovered a charming little artisanal pub called THE HARVESTER where we had GIGANTIC Salad Bowls. It was TASTY, despite/because of it looking very much like "Chef" had gone to M&S and bought a JOB LOT of their salads. It was actually rather nice there, sat on a cliff, with little BEACH HUTS to sit in in the beer garden.

On the way back we watched the Kite Surfers ZOOMING off of waves and FLYING through the air and went for a quick look at RSPB Lorton Meadows which was INCREDIBLE. I've been to nature reserves before and have got use to seeing, basically, three ducks and a pigeon, but this was PACKED with all SORTS of BURDS what I'd not seen before. It was, as I boldly stated at the time, "The best bird reserve EVER". I stand by that statement!

We got home in time for some CLASSIC Chain Hotel ACTION i.e. watching "Pointless" while drinking Coffee Sachets then almost falling asleep. Luckily we woke up in time to go our for a SWANKY MEAL (which The Items On My Bill TREATED me to, including AFTERS, for LO! I am A Lucky Guy!) then WHISKIES back in The Ship. Oh yes, we DO know how to holiday!

Our last full day was full of FUN but also DRAMA. We'd booked a place on Jurassic Safari and had arranged to be picked up in town at 13:45, leaving us PLENTY of time to go for lunch at The Hive Cafe. It's a veggie cafe, so it would have been RUDE not to! It was LOVELY but also suddenly very BUSY just as we wanted to pay and go, so in the end I had to pretend to be catching a train so we could DASH. I felt a bit bad about fibbing but then the woman in front gave me a RIGHT Evil Stare so I felt much better about it! We RAN through Weymouth, missed being picked up, got SAND BLASTED by the wind WHIPPING in off the sea and then... well, Gary the tour guide arrived about two minutes later in his mighty landrover to pick us up and everything was fine. Maybe calling it "DRAMA" was going a bit too far.

We then spent four hours being driven around by Gary in the aforesaid Landrover, along with two other people, having an UTTERLY BRILLIANT time. It was like being on an open top bus tour with a constant running commentary of FACTS, HISTORY, and PERSONAL GAGS that you could join in with. Ooh, we saw all sorts of things, both on and OFF ROAD as the landrover crossed FIELDS to get better views and also went through private land to see stuff like Heaven's Gate, an ASTONISHING viewpoint that you'd otherwise have to walk MILES to get to. Also, there was a break for CAKE!

Honestly, it was totally brilliant and I'd recommend it to anyone down that way - there are pictures of it all over on my Flickr Page where you can MARVEL at me looking REALLY HAPPY in various locations, often while sporting a floral shopping bag!

The four hours of the tour FLEW by and was so much fun that we had - HAD - to go back to The Ship for a PINT to calm down from it all. Exhausted by all the excitement we bought ourselves an PICNIC, bussed it back to the hotel, and continued the Chain Hotel Experience by drinking BOOZE in bed while watching Grand Designs. See above: TRULY we are HOLIDAY experts!

And that was that really - next day we strolled back to town, got yet more GRUB, hopped on the train and ZOOMED back to That London. Four nights was EXACTLY the right length of time, for us, to be there, not least because it meant we had a couple of days of hols left at the end of the week to get ready for going back to work.

In conclusion then: Weymouth! It was ACE!

posted 10/10/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Bloody Hell, that's the hotel I stay in pretty much every week when I visit our Weymouth office! Back down there Wednesday. You also found the best pub straight off, The Ship is excellent.
posted 10/10/2016 by Matt

Brilliant - well done everybody!!
posted 10/10/2016 by MJ Hibbett

Great write up, so glad you both enjoyed Weymouth ....... but all that walking!!!!!
posted 11/10/2016 by Dad

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