We spent Friday acclimating and getting to know our surroundings. Best thing to do on the first full day and night in town, wherever, is learn what's available and chart your course.
Weymouth is a sea town, has a glorious harbour (British spelling) of fishing boats and pleasure boats, and a sand beach for those on holiday. Tons of B&Bs and hotels along the shore, and a shopping mall which is an area of streets criss-crossing right near the water. Has a ferry dock, hover craft travel between the isles of Guernsey and Jersey and to St. Malo, France. I've done that trip before, loved it.
Weymouth harbour has a draw bridge separating one bank of pubs and shops, apartments, hotels, from the other ... definitely not a scarcity of pubs and shops. In England a pub is an eating place as well as a bar, in case you aren't aware. In the old days they were the only restaurants available in England, still are in some towns. Some pubs are old-world and very charming ... low ceilings, hand-hewn timbers, rustic accoutrements.
So, Friday we had our first meal of the day at the Swan Pub right near the draw bridge at the harbour. The Swan is popular, larger than most, packed all the time. I had a belgian waffle and a side of bacon, although I had to be a bit creative. The waffle was on the menu as a dessert with ice cream. Ordered it without the ice cream, but with maple syrup. I could see they had bacon, because they had sandwiches with bacon on them. So there you go, my bacon and waffle. Now the bacon here is different than ours in the U.S., not what you expect. Not in strips, usually thin slabs. Not round like Canadian Bacon, but sort of in between that and ours. And it tastes more like ham. Breakfast hit the spot, even though it was 4:30 p.m. by the time I had it. lol lol We slept till 3. The Swan is my usual place for regular meals when I'm here, and now Trish has experienced it. In most pubs by the way, the patron goes up to the bar and places their food order, no waiters or waitresses to take orders, but they do deliver it to you.
After that we walked along the harbour for a short distance, stopped by the George Inn, the pub in my writings of Weymouth (novels and short story - Mama's Diaries). It was quiet there so we didn't stay, planned to return later to watch people and have a glass.
So we walked through the streets, the shops were closing, but we were getting our bearings as I mentioned before. Found out where we had to go to get bus information for our sidetrips while here - the Pavillion - and plan to do that on Saturday. Always in the past there was an information center by the clock tower, but it is there no more.
After returning to the hotel and having a rest, still acclimating to the time change, we decided at 9 pm to head back to town for some live music. Bundled up warmly, we let our ears direct us ... they're all over the place, the music venues are. In every pub and hotel almost. We went back to the George Inn, and as chance would have it the band had canceled that night. So we sat and talked to a couple drunks at the bar till their repetitiveness bored us ... lol lol. We stopped and listened to one band but it wasn't exactly our cup of tea and then another which was perfect!
"Replay" is their name. Five guys that play '50s and '60s music - they were terrific! Loved 'em. So we stayed till closing time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves listening to Buddy Holly tunes, Beach Boys, and much more. They lead vocalist was superb, lead guitarist and bass guitarist were topnotch as well as the keyboardist and drummer. So much fun. They are on youtube. Type WEYMOUTH REPLAY on Youtube videos. We each bought a CD, but on you Youtube we can get our fix watching them when we get back to the states. Sure wish they could be in Phoenix performing. Oh, they invited us to come see and hear them on Saturday night at the Centenium ... a private club, sort of like the Elks in the U.S. So we're going.
So that finished off our first full day and Friday in Weymouth. After the music we walked back to the hotel along the beach and called it a night.
Hopefully we will be on Britain time on Saturday. We're working on it.
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