Another away day

I went down to Bournemouth on the train to spend the day with my friend P and her dear dog Stella, who is a cavapoo. P had a brilliant idea - to go on the open top bus from Bournemouth station to Swanage.  So we did.  It was really lovely to travel on the top deck of the bus in the morning sunshine, going west along the south coast, including across the chain ferry which takes you over the entrance to Poole Harbour. 
I was treated to  fish and chips for lunch (for my birthday last week). My fish was stolen by a herring gull:( I’ve seen this happening in St Ives and Looe and would have been on my guard in Cornwall. But we were sitting at a cafe table under the awning and I was relaxed.  It just dropped down vertically  - it’s feet on my arm, it’s wings flapping in my face, and it’s beak around my fish.  All over in less than a second. Rather horrible really. We shared P’s fish and it was enough. Then we walked up the hill past the harbour and above Swanage. You can see the beach, the cliffs and the chalk stacks (Old Harry’s rocks) from there.  But you can also see the Isle of Wight.  The Needles and cliffs are such a matching pair they were clearly joined together once, long ago. And you can see Bournemouth too. Lovely to sit up there. 
We went to Swanage every year for our family holidays from when I was 2 to 11. So it was lovely to see the beach, and I have such good memories of swimming, building sand structures of various kinds, and playing ball games. Being an only child, I remember there were always other children to play with. The little view bottom left shows the beach and also part of the harbour where many boat trips and fishing trips are available for tourists. The town really doesn’t seem to have changed much in 65plus years. They even still have a Punch and Judy show on the beach. Though I hope they have updated the stories and he doesn’t still hit Judy with a stick.