Me:
Puglia
Rome
Whitby
Lincolnshire Wolds
Summer is a comin'-in.
Also, there are plenty of unpretentious market towns within easy reach of us. My wife loves a decent cup of tea, like Kingstonian. I like back alleys, fanlights, crumbling church towers, sweet shops (becoming more widespread - only used to know a couple, in Whitby and Southwell), market stalls, seconhand bookshops... unlimited free parking...
Always wanted to go to Northumberland. Moat put me off a bit. Still, one of my ex-students' grandfather was dismembered less than a mile away.
Harbour Bar ice cream parlour in Scarborough. You can get Knickerbocker Glory and Banana Split and those treats you have not had since you were a kid. Plus it is a 1950s formica and vitrolite palace.
http://www.classiccafes.co.uk/harbourspecial.htm
http://www.scarborougheveningnews.co.uk/cafetasters/HARBOUR-BAR-SANDSIDE-SCARBOROUGH.3698171.jp
The seaside is great. People are paying more attention now we are in a recession.
I can easily get to Worthing, on the road to nowhere, and the drive is actually a pleasant one for someone who now hates most driving in the UK.
Drove to this place for fish and chips :-
http://www.eastbeachcafe.co.uk/
I have mixed feelings. It is good that they are trying to break away from the old ways and the architecture and food are very good. However, I prefer my local Superfish chippy though we are not on the coast. Littlehampton is still a nice little spot but too far from London for me to live there.
Sounds good to me. Whitby has the overrated 'Magpie', with queues a hundred yards long, but we nip up a side street to a more modest place. Sutton-On-Sea, not too far from where my daughter works, in Skegness, was a family favourite once upon a time. Slightly run down now. Llandudno is still more or less late Victorian. I have an excellent book on seaside architecture. Piers are rapidly disappearing, though, aren't they?
LOL, as they say... Post-'Space Oddity', pre-'Ziggy' period? 'Hunky Dory'? Once an idol of mine. Much rather have Rushing/Basie nowadays.
I used to be very taken with those old-fashioned slot machines: The Haunted Graveyard etc.
My first wife's father took me with him to Great Yarmouth. He was an eccentric racecourse journalist and gave me money for the fair. I was twenty six or so at the time. I visited two sets of waxworks.
I'm not that far from Whitby Mister Panic. You're very right about the Magpie. Ever tried Staithes, Robin Hoods Bay or Saltburn?
Staithes and Robin Hood's Bay, yes. I really like Staithes, but there is quite a good chippie near the sea wall in RHB. We stayed in Stoker's apartment in Whitby the third time. My elder daughter was going through her Goth phase. Does Saltburn have abbey ruins?
To bed... don't keep me busy!
No, Saltburn is a lovely Victorian holiday town with a pier and a fantastic, original carriage lift that takes you up the cliff from the beach to the town...
Sounds like my kind of place. Those lifts, in good working order, are pretty rare now.