A bit up the road, north of Ramsgate, is the seaside resort of Broadstairs.

It was “Folk Week” when I visited this past summer, and the resort area was absolutely chock-a-block, as the Brits say.  After driving in circles and finally finding a convenient parking spot, a friend of mine, who had spent summers there in her youth, and I walked in to the resort along the chalk cliffs.

We walked along the cliff top and noticed that Charles Dickens had lived and written here in centuries past, from 1837 until 1859. He described the town as “Our English Watering Place.  He wrote David Copperfield while staying at Bleak house, located along the cliff-top.

But of course, the main attraction was and is the beach…

…and the popular ice cream parlor in town, Morelli’s. The line wound down the street outside the shop. Beach towns are all the same, aren’t they? Sand and sweets.