| Day 28 - Canterbury |
 |
| Copyright Famocon Tours 2001 |
| to go to Home and each of the other days in this itinerary |
| After a sunrise walk along the beach at Kingsdown we ate a hearty breakfast, made our goodbyes and headed down the coast road towards Deal which to our mind was a lovely quiet slow sort of place with lots of well kept gardens and public places - it looked like a large well kept retirement home - there also seemed to be a lot of senior citizens out and about enjoying the outdoors. From the coast at Sandwich we travelled inland to Wingham, Littlebourne and then to Canterbury. We had been looking forward to this day for the past month and, like any pilgrim making this trip for the first time, we were instantly in awe of this wonderful place the moment we set eyes on it. You can't help but to be impressed by first sightings of the Cathedral and the ancient surrounding wall. We wandered through the central village which is an inner town where transport is banned and pedestrians rule on the cobbled streets which lead to some very old shop frontages. The atmosphere of this centre is happy, fun and carefree and you could spend hours looking through the array of shops. There are wandering barrows of budget goods, the usual tourist type shops and the more upmarket speciality shops, mixed with food shops and eating houses. One shop was playing a CD of authentic Gregorian chants which sounded pleasant and seemed quite appropriate until you see the dulled look on the shop assistant's face and realise that she must listen to this all day, every day. We looked at Elvis CDs instead. We visited the Canterbury Tales recreation - five of the main tales from Chaucer's classic brought to life in authentic settings. This was very amusing and definitely worth seeing. After lunch at the very old Weavers House we headed to the Cathedral down Mercery Lane and through the ancient gate much used by pilgrims for hundreds of years. It may not be the biggest or prettiest Cathedral in England but to us it ranks up there with Westminster Abbey. We spent two hours rambling through this wonderful building - highlights were the Crypt, the Cloisters and the spot were Beckett was murdered by the King's soldiers. The outer grounds and the King's School are also good attractions. There is plenty to see in Canterbury if you have the time, including a visit to the remains of St Augustine's Abbey and to a variety of museums. We said goodbye to our hire car in Canterbury and were grateful for a trouble free 2,500 miles of travel. We noticed that patting the car attracts less attention than hugging it. We returned to London by train which took us to Victoria Station. |