You know how sometimes you find a place that gives you that particular feeling of contentment without really being able to pinpoint why? Deal is one of those places. With its tranquil quaintness and its one-of-a-kind beach, the small seaside town has it all, without ever being overwhelming.
It is easy to miss the obvious sometimes, like when you cannot find your glasses because they are sitting on your nose — or when you don't see the large military facility that's hidden within one of the world's most famous landmarks. After years of passing it by, I have finally visited Fan Bay Deep Shelter, a curious place with a serendipitous history.
Jon is used to my quirks (which I am sure he finds charming), but I guess even he didn’t understand what I was on about when I insisted we should spend the night in Dartford on our way to Scotland and go to the train station “in order to see a landmark”.
I remember my first day in England as clear as day. My school had organised a trip to London for us to practice whatever we were supposed to have learnt in our English course. I was fifteen. The sun was shining in the early morning, the sea was calm and my friends and I were on the deck of the ferry from Calais.
A rather formidable architectural prowess in a small seaside town.
A visit of Brunel's SS Great Britain in Bristol. A beautiful day out!
Tried and Tested for you: My detailed review of the P&O Ferries Club Lounge. Cross the Channel in style to and from Dover and Calais. Unsponsored and unbiased.
As any biography of Lewis Carroll will inform you, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the eldest boy and third child of Frances Jane Lutwidge and Charles Dodgson, in the small parsonage of Daresbury (Cheshire) near the towns of Warrington and Runcorn on the 27th of January, 1832. And of course, if you are a Carrollian, you might want to visit his birthplace someday.