ETLAG DOES HAVE AN UPSIDE. On my first morning at the Royal Albion Hotel in Broadstairs, I’m awake to see the sun peep up from the ocean right outside my window, slowly lighting up this picturesque chocolate box of a coastal town, the horizon ablaze in orange. The thought occurs: “Did Charles Dickens also see the sun rise in this same spot?”. He was a frequent visitor to the town and a plaque on the hotel exterior announces was written on the premises. You can’t turn around, it seems, on this wedge of the Kent Coast, collectively known as Thanet, without bumping into a blue plaque.
