London 2023 - Day 5 / Southend-on-Sea & London

Steps today: 25 278 / 16.66km

Our plan for today was an excursion to visit the Pleasure Pier at Southend-on-Sea; apparently the longest one in the world at 2.16 km long. Frank told me he learned about it thanks to a TV show we saw (we are in to British cop-dramas) but I don't remember it at all.

To get there from London, one must catch the C2C train from Fenchurch station, but it was not as simple for us as it sounds. When we arrived at the station, it was full of people exiting so we thought it was an exit. We peered in but didn't see a ticket booth, so we concluded we were at an exit door and kept walking to an other entrance were we concluded the same thing.

I didn't take a picture, but here's an image from Google Street View so you get the idea.

First entrance:

Second entrance:

I said to Frank, let's pause for breakfast and come back with a fresh head and search again! We had coffee and a danish at a coffee shop near by, then when we returned we found the ticket booth instantly. See, all we needed was to be a little more awake.  Turns out we didn't see the ticket booth when we looked in was because it was slightly off to the side.

We were on the train by about 8:30 AM and arrived at the Pier entrance as soon as is opened at 10:15.

It was a great walk along the Pier and because we arrived when it opened, we had the whole place to ourselves, well... almost. There was one other couple there and at one point I ran head of them and said: Excuse me, I just want to get a picture with no one in the shot.

Perhaps inevitably, this led to small talk and we ended up walking with them the entire way. I am leery about situations like these because they pull me out of my vacation-bubble. EXTRA especially when you run into people "from home" because then you just end up talking about home-stuff for an hour and I go on vacation to forget all that. (I have been known to run across the street to get out of earshot of Quebecers in Paris.)

This couple was very nice, seniors from a few town over in Leigh-on-Sea, and we had a pleasant chat....  but it was all about home-politics which I can do without when I am on the other side of the planet.

Because the pier is so long, there is a railway that runs the length, but we walked both ways. In this first picture, you can see how the train scared the seagulls away...

We didn't linger long when we got to the end of the pier, we just snapped a few pictures and walked back. It's about a half hour walk each way.

It was probably around 11:15ish by the time we made it back, and we determined it was time for some adult-refreshments... we found NOTHING along the High Street. Zilch. Lots of café, but not one pub! I finally went into a café to ask, and was told there were plenty around... so we must have been searching with our eyes closed.

Eventually, we found a Slug and Lettuce (another chain) and waited around the 10 minutes for them to open at noon.

Ahhhh..... Pink Gin again for me this time in my G&T. so yummy!!

We stuck around for lunch, based on the hard time we had just finding this place, we were not going to move.  My burger was awfully messy. It was a cheeseburger, but with cheese SAUCE. Impossible to eat by hand.  Imagine, I asked them to hold the BBQ sauce... how gross would that have been?

After lunch, we headed back to London and arrived around 2:30.

First, we visited the ruins of the St Dunstan in the East Church that was destroyed in WWII

The activity I wanted to do the most was go up to the Sky Garden and have a drink. It's a roof-top botanical garden with a bar and amazing views over the city. Frank however was completely uninterested and wanted nothing to do with it. He ended up winning that day because there was a line-up to get in and I was not interested in waiting.  Too bad. it's so nice up there I should have asked how long the wait would be because sometimes these things move fast....  but Frank was so not willing that it started to feel like a thing so there was no point.

We walked over to the Monument and took a few pictures. I've climbed it at least twice so I wasn't tempted this time.

We crossed over the Thames and strolled along the South Bank, it was really nice!

I was particularly impressed with this London Cityscape Mural, especially when you looked up close to see just how it was painted.

A little before 5, we stopped for supper at Strada, another chain that I like but many of the locations I remembered from around town have closed.  Again it was nice and comfortable to eat outside!

We were done a little before 6, and we crossed back over the Thames with the intention of walking back to the hotel.

Supreme court:

Westminster Abbey and School: 

We eventually got fed up and tubed it home. As is our usual, we were back in the room by 7:30, ready for bed.  That might seem early for most people, but our days are so full and the sun sets early anyway so we're totally fine with it!

Day 5 Map - Southend-on-Sea

I find it very funny!

Day 5 Map - London

For the life of me I could not fix the gaps and eventually just gave up trying.