The home straight..........

We're now entering the last week of our adventure and have now visited 41 of the 55 piers in the UK. Yesterday we saw 6 piers in four different towns and over the last 2 days we have visited 10 piers in 3 different counties. By the time we finish we'll need a holiday to get over this holiday!

 

First up on a lovely sunny Sunday was Southwold Pier. The Piers Society had tweeted me in the morning to tell us we were set to see some really nice piers today and they were obviously including Southwold Pier when they wrote that.

 

It is brilliant. Artistically designed, completely unique, immaculate and, well, just a little bit mad! It seems a lot of thought has gone into every shop, room and café on the pier and it just looks great. The highlight of the morning/day (maybe even the holiday) was the assortment of coin operated novelty machines designed by inventor Tim Hunkin in his Under The Pier Show. I imagine he looks similar to one of those eccentric, mad professor types like Doc Brown in Back to the Future. 

 

They are the funniest/funnest (?) machines you will find in the British Isles. Games such as 'Whack A Banker', Crankenstein and Gene Forecaster 2012 had me laughing out loud. My particular favourite, Mobility Masterclass, saw you having to cross a busy road using a zimmer frame! As bonkers as it sounds.

 

I loved Southwold Pier and it's now my favourite pier.....

 

 

#36 Southwold

Next on the list was Lowestoft. They have two piers and after finding a free parking space 100 metres from the first it was a good start. The pier itself is not unlike Felixstowe in that it is simply an arcade with the pier boardwalk out of bounds due to safety reasons.

#38 Lowestoft

The second pier is a concrete jetty that forms part of the harbour. I can only imagine it is classed as a pier because there is an amusement arcade at the front and the sign says South Pier.

Lowestoft looks like a place living under the shadow of its big brother up the coast (Great Yarmouth) and there's not much going on. The fact that a group of around 40 people were watching a couple of diggers move some sand on the beach shows how little there is to do in Lowestoft on a Sunday afternoon.

 

 #39 Lowestoft South

 



Time to see if Yarmouth really is Great.

We located parking right outside the Wellington Pier and after paying the extortionate £4.50 fee we headed over the road to take a look. At the front of the Pier is a big amusement arcade that was opened in 2008 along with a bowling alley in another building behind the arcade. It feels like once you've seen one amusement arcade you've seen them all and we headed along the sea front to the second pier.

#39 Great Yarmouth (Wellington Pier)

 

The second Yarmouth Pier (Britannia) was similar, but older, with arcades, cafes, and a bar at the end of the pier. It's just a bog standard pier that we've seen countless times on this trip and after the delights of Southwold Pier that morning it was hard to muster up much enthusiasm. There was only one thing for it, a game of crazy golf.
 

 

#40 Great Yarmouth (Britannia Pier)

 

Luckily Yarmouth has some excellent courses and the seafront Castaway Island course was a particular delight (although I lost by one stroke to Sam).

 

It was getting late and we had a longish drive ahead of us, first to Cromer for the 6th pier of the day, and then onwards to Kings Lynn for our hotel.

 

Cromer Pier is currently 'Pier of the Year' and it's easy to see why. It's not the flashiest or the smartest pier we've seen but it had one of the best vibes we've felt on a pier this holiday. It was bustling with fishermen, crabbers, people enjoying their fish and chips in the evening sun and a lot of people just sitting, chatting around the bar. It's a great community pier that was very, very busy.

 

#41 Cromer

 

A nice end to a hectic day......

Distance travelled so far: 1571 miles Piers visited: 41

We’re hoping to raise a bit of money for the RNLI as we travel from pier to pier and I’ve set up a charitable page here http://www.everyclick.com/visit55piersin20days/info to accept donations.

 If you feel you could spare a pound or two and sponsor us for this very worthwhile charity that would be really great and much appreciated.