Exeter, 19th Aug 2011 7:50pm Another unwritten law about England is that train stations are usually nowhere near the town centre. Weymouth, where I stayed yesterday, was a very pleasant exception in this matter. It took me only a minute to reach the seafront. Unfortunately, though, the Tourist Information was at the very tip of a pier at the other end of the seafront. With a rucksack weighing 29lbs and a promenade plastered with seagulls and kids running about, ...

Bournemouth, 18th August 2011 10:00am Bournemouth likes to advertise itself as the "UK's No.1 of Seaside Resorts". They may be right. Bournemouth seems indeed to be far better maintained than other seaside towns; it's got nice parks and gardens, a long and clean beach and a variety of pretty cool places for food and drinks. It's also the first place I've visited on this trip that has a lounge on the seafront. A bar or cafe with proper wicker chairs, chill-out so...

Saturday 13th Aug 07:30pm, Shanklin, Isle of Wight For the last two days the weather was not very appealing. Quite constant light drizzle, trademark UK drizzle of the sort you get very often over here, meant that I was mostly staying indoors, watching TV, reading books and having a discussion with the whole family at Roseberrys about blood pressure (Steven, an uncle of the kids, refused to believe me that 180/120 is Grade-3 hypertension that requires an instant ...

10th August 09:20pm, Shanklin, Isle of Wight The passage Portsmouth - Ryde: I would have really liked to travel by hovercraft but those depart from Southsea and cost about 20% more than the catamaran, which itself costs 20% more than the ferry. So I crossed the Solent on the 'Wight Ryder II', an obvious reference to Knight Rider for comic effect. The crossing, which took 15 minutes, was rather uneventful (duh, it was only a quarter hour, so what do you expect?)....

7th August 10pm, The Lady Hamilton, Portsmouth Days passed since my last entry but I can tell you I had a lot to digest... I stayed in Crowborough a couple of days ago, which was a bit of a hick town, nothing happening, so I won't write about that. I got up to go to a place I had looked forward to going to: Brighton. Of course, that meant taking the train from Crowborough to East Croydon, halfway back into London, to then get on the Brighton line. Train ride as...