Sidmouth

Do you have a place that you are always happy to re-visit?  Is there a particular place that you always visit when you go and see relatives or friends?

Sidmouth is one of those places for me.  Situated on the south coast of England in Dorset it is a mere 16 miles from where my granddad lives but couldn't feel further away.

After driving down the winding country lanes for half an hour you are suddenly in a world that looks like it came straight from an episode of Jeeves & Wooster with tall white houses, bright Victorian hotels with bowling greens and a promenade made up of all styles and colours of buildings.

Every time I visit Devon, Sidmouth is firmly on the "to do" list - I need my paddle in the sea, a play with the many types of seaweed (especially since I've added seaweed to my diet!), a wander down the winding roads with little gems of shops round every corner and last but not least, fish and chips followed by an ice cream ("99 with a flake and red stuff").

I like to start my visit from the Jacob's Ladder end of Sidmouth which you can access through the beautiful Connaught Gardens.

At the bottom of the steps you can start your walk along the beach to the promenade with the sea to your right and the red Triassic Mercia Mudstone.

Once you get to the end of the giant red stone wall I like to head down the pebble beach to the more sandy part where off come the shoes and into the waves I go!

The sea air always seems to make me hungry by the time I get to the main road so it's off to the White Horse Cafe for some out of this world fish and chips!

You can dine in or if you're feeling daring and ready to fend off massive seagulls, you can use the take away section for fish and chips wrapped in paper to eat on the beach.  There are several options on the menu but let's face it, you're at the seaside so it'd be wrong to eat anything other than fish and chips!  They do have a variety of fish if you do fancy a little choice!

Grab a table, place your order at the counter and then when your number is shouted out, claim your meal!

You'll want to walk off your fish dinner so head back to the promenade and aim for the red cliffs.  I get a little sad every time I visit as every year a little more of the cliff has eroded.  Did you know that hundreds of millions of years ago the sand, which was part of a desert, was washed into place by rivers and then baked into a massive red sandy part of sunny Devon?

Worn out by the paddling, walking on pebble-y beaches and fish and chips, it's time to head back to the car...

One last stop though...

Ice cream!

No seaside trip is complete without what we call in England a "99" - a soft ice cream usually served with a Cadbury's flake and "red stuff" (raspberry sauce).  Again, watch out for those pesky seagulls!  The man walking in front of me had his entire ice cream cone snatched from his HAND!

Do you have a favourite place to re-visit?

White Horse Cafe
Old Fore Street
Sidmouth
Devon
EX10 8LP