As Baldrick would say "I have a cunning plan..."
OK the suggested plan for the Suffolk day out is as follows...
We'll plan to meet outside Southwold Pier between 9-10am which will give people coming from afar a chance to arrive without having to panic if you are delayed for any reason.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=The+Southwold+Pier+,+Southwold,+Waveney+District&hl=en&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=24.248373,50.141602&oq=Southwold+Pier&hq=The+Southwold+Pier+,+Southwold,+Waveney+District&t=m&z=15For those that do arrive earlier you'll have plenty of photo opportunities of the Pier and the surrounding area. For those insomniacs, or avid 'golden hour' togs, dawn is at 5.53am... for those with magnetic duvet's here's what it looks like at 4.50am on a July morning...
There are a few parking places in front of the pier so if you see one grab it, otherwise you can park along the seafront. Now, unless the council have recently decided to introduce parking restrictions (which I doubt), parking is free all the way along the front. If, for any reason, there are no spaces and you don't want to pay to park in the council run car park (just to the North of the pier) you may be able to find spaces along Pier Avenue, the road you will have approached the pier on.
After we've all mustered at 10am I suggest we leave the cars and have a relaxed walk along the seafront until we reach Gun Hill and the famous beach huts nestling on the sand dunes. From there we can have a walk back to the cars via the town to either take pictures, shop at the outrageously overpriced boutiques or call in to the Black Olive deli for a famous 'Ginger Pig' sausage roll.
Once back at the cars we'll form a convoy for a 5 minute drive down to the harbour. I would imagine that it will be around lunchtime so just in time for a spot of lunch at the Harbour Inn perhaps? After lunch I suggest we take a walk down by the harbour where there's lots of old boats, fishermans huts etc. There's also plenty of photo opportunities down by the harbour mouth. If the foot ferry is running we could also pop across the river to Walberswick which has plenty more film fodder.
Once we've all made our way back to the Harbour Inn I suspect it's going to be late afternoon so perhaps a quick pint and review of the day is in order before we all go our separate ways.
If anyone has any questions or needs any additional info let me know.
Paul