Would you believe Great Yarmouth is nearer to Holland than it is to London, which is probably why it's the home of a regular ferry service to Rotterdam? The harbour sits firmly with its back to the sea and spreads along the River Yare and the mudflats of Breydon Water.
It was the home of herring drifters, scouring the waters of the North Sea and landing their catches for the curing houses, famous today for their smoked Yarmouth bloaters.
The town itself faces the sea where trippers from all over Norfolk and the east can enjoy miles of sandy beach, two piers, amusements and funfairs, bowling greens and gardens.
Coming back from the quayside there were once the old alley ways called the Rows, too narrow to pass through by vehicle and needing a special horse-drawn troll cart to bring goods into town.
The Rows were number from 1 to 145 but only part remains after the bombings of the Second World War.
Parts of the medieval town remain too as well as merchant houses belonging to Tudor and Victoria times, like the Customs House.
The Victorian town, two ruined windmills and a dilapidated station bring Dickens to mind and sure enough the town boasts the great writer set dramatic scenes of ship wreck in an east-coast gale off Yarmouth where the villain of 'David Copperfield' loses his life.
In the early years of the 20th Century there were over a thousand fishing boats working out of Yarmouth.
A home for shipwrecked seaman is now the old Maritime Museum of East Anglia and the once thriving community of herring fisherman who brought visitors from all over Scandinavia and Europe are gone.
Over-fishing the coastal waters has taken its toll and the town now services North Sea gas and oil operations.