New Forest Mini-break - Day #3 - Christchurch and Lyndhurst

So (apologies, a little late), back to our last day of the break, managed to pack up in about one hour flat (after waking up fairly late and enjoying a leasurely breakfast (the camp site doesn't insist you clear the pitch until half twelve, which was nice))...we set the TomTom for central Christchurch (not strictly-speaking actually in the New Forest, but near enough)... ;) After just one tiny mishap (being directed into a car park which was height restricted a little too low for Colin to squeeze into), we managed to find our way to the marina car park (which was rather expensive, but it did mean there were plenty of spaces to choose from, unlike the other car parks in town), and then we walked along the harbour wall into town, and I have to say the whole place is just staggeringly beautiful -

- (might have been the wonderful weather painting things a little artificially sunshiny) but it just seemed everywhere I looked, the whole place was picture perfect -


- walking down the high street was like walking back through time, I think the only mainstream high street store in the entire length of it was a single retro-looking Woolworths -

- all the rest were tiny independent stores (well, and a few charity shops/banks, but that's allowed) -

- I mean, how many tiny towns that you know still have their own little local theatre?

Anyway, we wandered around the farmers market (and did actually discover where the chain stores were, the council seems to have managed to force them all into a little hidden arcade by the multi-storey car park right on the edge of town, amazingly good town planning resulting in probably the only really traditional, largely untouched and truely independent high street in the country (well, that I have ever seen, anyway)! A visit is therefore strongly advised for that spectacle alone... ;)

From there we drove to Lyndhurst in search of some lunch, and found it at the "Fox and Hounds", a "smoke free" pub(!)...where I had a very reasonable Fillet steak (price more reasonable than presentation or flavour (standard pub grub), but I had been rather spoilt for the last couple of days, so not suprising it didn't shine comparitively) -

When we were done we took a walk down the high street, poked around the excellent camping shop in town (but didn't buy anything), and then stumbled upon this little gem -

- a proper, old fashioned sweet shop, hundreds and hundreds of different kinds of sweets, shaming even the largest supermarket with the sheer range, so we stocked up on interesting and retro goodies to give away as novel easter gifts, then back to the camper -

- and home, which took about 2 hours, so an easy hop, considering the massive difference in lifestyle, scenery and culture, a visit to the New Forest (I'll say it again) is like stepping back through time...wonderful... ;)