The Ups and Downs of the Weekend Break

posted on 29 July 2011 | posted in Holiday and Travel

The English seaside in late October can be a bleak sight. The amusement arcades are trying to draw in the few hardy souls battling the east wind to walk along the seafront. The candyfloss salesmen have long since packed up their stands and gone to Spain for the winter. So why am I in Great Yarmouth enjoying the dubious pleasures of a caravan site? Well, from the moment we looked at motorhomes for sale in the UK, we'd already kind of decided the types of holidays we'd be taking.

Not only that, but for the love of my youth, the years that saw the Dave Clark Five, The Seekers and The Supremes, the Swinging Sixties. With foreign holidays drawing more of us to warmer climates during the off-season Holiday Camps have had to seek new ways to bring in visitors and the nostalgia weekend is a popular choice. At just £80 each it was a cheap break. So with three friends here I am in a tin box with the wind whistling through the rubber seals around the window and a rather rusty looking gas fire, looking forward to two days of unrelenting reminiscing. The day had not started well with my car windscreen shattering on route and my travelling companion insisting on bringing along her own mattress which took an age to get in the car and fairly comprehensively obscured the view through the rear window. Oh how I wished later I'd had a mattress of my own as the damp and cold seeped through. Morning came and the joy of a cooked breakfast beckoned. The cafe on site was a highlight and the day was brighter and the first tribute act were performing and suddenly the mood lightened. How we laughed and danced and recalled stories of the bands we had seen in our youth. Before we knew it we were back in our caravan, so worn out that nothing would keep us from our beds. Wrapped in blankets with the heaters going full blast we slept and the cold of the night before was forgotten. Did we care that we'd been cold and damp? No, we'd had a great weekend. Would I do it again? Well to be honest no, but I'm glad I went.