#tbt Travel Diaries - Day Trip to Blackpool
Welcome to part two of the #tbt Travel Diaries series, as I revisit my study abroad adventures in England. As I got more acclimated to Bolton and settled into this 6 day weekend 1 day school situation and got the first trip to London out of the way, I hit the road planning out more and more trips, from day trips to long weekends away. One of the first day trips I planned after popping the travel cherry with London, was a day trip up to Blackpool. So hopefully you guys enjoy coming down memory lane with me on this next one:
Original Blog Post February 19th, 2013:
Blackpool was an easy hour train ride north of Bolton with one changeover in Preston. Blackpool I feel is a little bit like the Jersey Shore of England. Got the boardwalks, cheesy tourists attractions, kinda seedy feel, beach, etc.
My intent of this trip though was mostly to visit Blackpool Pleasure Beach, a boardwalk/amusement park. It really was a neat park and couldn’t beat half-price weekends in February. There is a fairly decent amount of roller coasters here too. A bunch of them old which adds to the charm of the place as well as a lot of them crisscrossing over and under each other to fill the limited park space. Most of the other rides were geared more towards kids and families. The roller coasters are nothing to write home about but still enjoyable. I did not get on all of them as the park closed early like the rest of England but still had a good time.
Wild Mouse (RIP) was probably one the most unique coasters there and probably one of my favorites. You literally had to duck and lean to the side on the lift hill otherwise you would have hit your head on the coaster track. Also the only thing holding you in was a very loose seat belt, I literally was getting thrown out of my seat on the turns and drops.
For some reason I thought it would be smart to make a water ride my last ride of the day. I underestimated how wet I was going to get as soon as I saw the three inches of water in the bottom of the boat, I tried hard keeping my feet above the water but that just didn’t seem to happen. Thank god some nice people gave me one of their rain ponchos when they were done with the ride, it kept my pants and coat dry at least.
As I walked out of the park at closing I noticed another amusement pier was open, I guess not everything closed early.
Before I knew it I was walking down the boardwalk for a couple miles checking out the beach, random oddities and the come to find out many piers in the area. This was basically the “beach” on the south side of the pier that was not really existent, it is literally a bunch of stairs/ledges that lead straight into the water.
On the other side of the pier was an actually beach, they still had the stairs/ledges leading down to the sand but at least there was a beach area, albeit it was very wet. Very different then the beaches and seaside I am use to back in America.
Had to stop at one of the pier food stands because those are hard to pass up. And thus the crepe with nutella obsession started here, can not believe how long it took for this to take off in America. Crepe’s are almost the best food in the world. Key word there almost, buffalo chicken>everything…that is probably until I get to Italy.
My camera wasn’t very kind to my night pictures and it did not like the dancing lights on the Blackpool Tower much either. I skipped going up the tower for several reasons, one it was closed, two it was dark an three did not want to spend my money on it. So unfortunately no photos from the top or any info on what the tower is like. Either way it was a really nice day/evening and walking right along the water was really nice/calm and surprisingly warm.
Hope you enjoyed taking a walk down memory lane with me again on this very quick but fun filled trip to Blackpool. Have you been to Blackpool before, what are some of your favorite things to do in Blackpool?
See you in the next adventure.
-The Wandering Professional