Day 16 - it's cold, it's wet, it's windy, and we're in England......let's go to the beach.

Another use for hotel bathrooms (and no, dear reader, you'll be pleased to read that it is not bowels-related) - Julianne was wondering why Patrick was taking so long in the bathroom - turns out it was the one place in our room where he could get good reception to access the internet - excited too that the Crows had won.

Another fabulously glorious start to the day - a different cook this morning, but breakfast still as delicious.

As suggested, we drove over to Southport to take in the sea air. Unfortunately there was a car boot sale taking place in the Park & Ride to catch a bus in to the shopping area and main tourist drag - but a sign did direct us to an alternative site - excellent signs to this site, but no actual signs at this site - ended up circumnavigating various carports and Southport about 3 times before we worked out where it was. Wandered around the main shopping strip for a while and picked up a few things for the kids. I could be wrong, but judging but the faded grandeur of many of the buildings I am guessing that Southprt used to be like a very posh Victor Harbor, whereas judging by the ill-fitting clothes, Ugg boots, tattoos, and people smoking, it is now rather more like Hackham.

Started drizzling, so I spent about half an hour sheltered under a department store verandah whilst Julianne played to her strength and went shopping. When the drizzle had subsided to a steady mist we decided to head out to the pier. Turned out to be a rather pleasant walk - bracing, but not too cold, and no rain. At the end of the pier is a collection of old arcade games, a penny a go. It would seem, judging by her response to having a few wins on the old-fashioned one-armed bandit fruit machine that Isabel has the potential to to form a gambling problem - must watch that. Started raining as we were about to leave, at which point, very conveniently, a tram arrived - £5 for the family to get back relatively dry.

Subsequently poured with rain for the drive up to Blackpool, which didn't bode well for the rest of the day, but it did start to ease up once we'd got there - took Mick and Jean's advice and tried Whelan's fish cafe/restaurant at Lytham St. Anne's on the way (as recommended by Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsay) for dinner - excellent fish and chips - well, for 3 of us anyway - Isabel not keen on indulging in the local fare.

Car-park near the famous Blackpool landmark, the Tower. 5 minute walk, still a reasonable bit of light for a good view, and the promise of a walk across the famous walk of faith across a  thick slab of perspex/glass at the top - closed due to the high winds. High winds on the west coast of England - who'd 'ave thought?! Mind you, safety first, and this was probably our first disappointment for the trip when there could have been so many already, so can't complain. Can't say the same for a couple of local lasses in front of us who were, for the most part, very lively in clearly expressing their displeasure at being denied the opportunity to scale the heights of this iconic structure. Subsequently took a walk long the promenade, out onto the pier where we were fleeced not once but twice by a couple of side-show operators - at least it was all in good fun, and everyone knew the score - them 2, us nil!! Wandered up the main street for a bit until the illuminations got lit, checking out just about every cheap and tawdry tacky souvenir shop along the way - and obviously made a few purchases of some fine local products - where exactly is 'China' in Lancashire? Hopped back in the car and joined several thousand other cars slowly inching [should the word be 'millimetreing' in Australia?] their way up the beachfront - lucky it's not summer and really busy. Because we'd only started about half-way up, we decided to turn around at the light's most northerly point and make our way back down the entire strip - 4.9 miles in 70 minutes. 14 miles back to Preston in about 20 minutes.

[Travel tip - only take 1 adaptor for each country being visited, but also include a local power board for however many electrical devices one needs to recharge - the slightly extra space will be more than compensated for by the convenience. Also, a recharger to fit into the cigarette lighter will help prevent the phone one is using to navigate via Google maps (Mum, Dad, Liz and Allan, we'll explain when we get back) to lose power and leave you stranded. And apropos of telephones, do not under any circumstance waste money on a travel SIM - couldn't get it to work, and found it much easier just to buy a prepaid SIM card here and top it up as we go - so far it has cost us less than £20, and it's been worth its weight...no wait, it hardly weighs a thing, so that cliche is pointless - worth the weight of the telephone in gold perhaps].