It was the last day in England for the Rs and we wanted to do something fun. So we decided to take the train down to Canterbury, look around the village, the Cathedral, see where Thomas Becket was killed etc. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating. We woke up that day to a huge rainstorm. It was raining as hard as I have ever seen it. A bit of hail, some thunder and lightening and our trip was looking like it might not take place. Good thing for us that Mr. R. is pretty adventurous. He lobbied for going anyway, weather be damned. The worst that could happen would be that we would have a good train rain, a nice pub Sunday roast lunch and perhaps get little wet while absorbing some history. Sounds simple? Well no.
After we bought the tickets, we couldn’t find the train anywhere on the departures board. Turns out, there is no direct train to Canterbury that day because they are doing work on the track. So we need to take a train to Strood, get off, take a bus to Gillingham (pronounced Jillinghum) then get on the train there and get to Canterbury. Great. Maybe we can get a refund? Yes if we fill out these three forms, mail them in and then wait for a decision in the next 2-3 weeks. So once again, Mr. “it-will-be-fine” R and his friend, Chizz “I am sure I can find us pub there” W. suggest we sally forth. Which we do. The ride there is always fun. The kids were excited on the train and were very loud. The bus ride took us through Strood, which makes Slough the home of the UK “the Office” look posh. We also went through Rochester, which was very quaint and cute. It has a castle, cathedral and very adorable village that is hosting a Dickens fair next weekend. If I can get the kids organized, we might go – now that I know how to get there on the train.
We finally get to Canterbury. Walking from the train station, we came up on a little festival that mostly had food stalls. We sipped hot chocolate with brandy (parents only) and walked through the festival. The kids bought Madeleine cookies and gummy worms.
The cathedral at Canterbury is magnificent. There were services going on because it was a Sunday but we were able to see quite a bit of the church and hear one of the choirs sing. We saw the memorial to Thomas Becket, an Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered by monks in 1170 and wandered around the churchyard. We found a cute little pub called Simple Simon in Canterbury. It is one of the oldest buildings in Canterbury, believed to have been built in the late 14th or early 15th centuries. The atmosphere was great; wood fires, low ceilings, cold beer, good food.
See above bus-train route, go backwards. Pretty much the same except for some local boys on bikes trying to put the moves on the girls. Good thing they had Snake there because he “was getting ready to say something” to them.
Our time with the Rs was fun but over way too quickly. Since they had to get up pretty early the next morning, we said goodbye to them right there on the underground train. I am sure the other passengers were enthralled.
Now we don’t have any visitors coming for quite some time. Anyone want to visit London in January, anyone at all??
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