The beach at Foulkstone
I admit—I was nervous when it came to driving for the first time in England. When we were in London, we didn't have a car but instead used our Oyster Card to ride the Underground almost everywhere we went.
There were two exceptions: we took a cab from Paddington Station to our hotel when we first arrived in London and another cab to have dinner at The Maize Grill, Gordon Ramsey's "American" restaurant in Grosvenor Square. When it came time to leave London, we took a hotel shuttle down to Gatwick Airport, where we rented a pretty blue Skoda to drive for the rest of our journey around England.
Since I was a nervous first-time driver in England, I decided it'd be best to stay on the major highways until I got the hang of sitting on the right side of the car and shifting with my left hand. I took the M25 and M20 from Gatwick Airport towards Folkestone, then the A259 west along the coast to Rye. We stopped at Knole on the way and planned on visiting Leeds Castle but decided not to. (More about both in separate diaries.)
What you see above is called shingle and is considered a fine beach in the south of England. This shingle beach is Sandgate Beach, along the Sandgate Esplanade just west of Folkestone. You can see how crowded and inviting it is on a beautiful summer day in mid-June.