A Day In Southport

Today we went on a child free day out to Southport. A new place for us both as I have never been and Anders found out that had been as a child but he can't remember going. Although the weather wasn't great I was still looking forward to visiting a new seaside and better still .. it has a pier.

We headed straight for the pier and sea and to reach it from where the car was parked walked through King's Garden. A lovely park with a lake, playground, crazy golf and miniature railway ( the golf and railway appeared closed for the season ). The gardens look like they would be an extremely popular place during the warmer months.

The pier wasn't far at all from the gardens. I have never been on a pier which starts so far inland but saw that it went over a marine lake (the lake in the gardens). 

Much of the pier after that is over land .. a skate park one side with a putting green on the other .. a retail park one side, a retail park on the other. Not very sea sidey at all. It is only when you reach the half way point along the pier that you actually reach the sea. 

Blackpool Tower and the big roller coaster could be seen from the pier even in poor weather. 

Trams run along the pier to take passages from one end to the other. The tide was fully in so there was no shell collecting but by this point I couldn't feel my toes and my cheeks felt so cold I think I could have resembled Father Christmas.

After the seaside we headed towards town. I've never seen so many chip shops in one place and so close together, some next to each other. 

Jewellers is another thing there is no shortage of but I do love a nosey in those windows especially the old fashioned jewellers which seemed to be every other shop. There were plenty of main retail shops about but I think that the majority in the town were independent shops which is really good to see and not many empty premises. 

Still in town we reached the end of the row of shops and crossed the road where it seemed to be mainly residential properties. There were some very nice houses and I couldn't resist taking a snap of this one which looks to me like a sea shell over the door. 

Along the same road we found the mermaid fountain.

 This is one side of the war memorial. 

This style of street lights are everywhere. With the lights lit, it must look beautiful in Winter when it snows.

Back over the road I took some photos of the shop fronts.

While taking snaps I saw this and we decided to go for a look.

 Definitely our kind of shop. One to have a good rummage in. Baskets of shells and crystals. Cabinets of oddities. Lots of old books. Anders spotted one that was dated 1773 with a £2,500 price tag.

Heading back to the car we nipped in to an arcade. I had a couple of goes on a grabber machine then put a pound in for Anders to have a go. He won both of these with that pound. He's so pleased with himself I never heard the end of it all night.

There was a hall of mirrors on the way to one of the arcade exits. I've not seen one of these for years.
We had a great day out and we'll certainly make a return visit  with the children.