Our journey began at Canterbury. Well, our journey actually began at Digby, where we left camp in the dark, even though it was technically morning, so that we could deliver Sean to Gatwick airport. He was going to spend the next week visiting relatives in the States while we tromped around the English countryside. After we'd thrown Sean into the clutches of Delta airlines, we became touristas and headed for the southeast coast of England.
Our route took us through Canterbury, and we really couldn't be considered serious touristas if we passed by without having a look around, could we? Everybody's heard of it, and I've actually spent a year busting my brains trying to read Chaucer, so we really had to. We spent half of our time there in a store, waiting in line to buy an umbrella, and the other half in Canterbury cathedral, which I took way more pictures of it than you're ever going to want to look at.
The afternoon took us to Herne Bay and a peaceful B&B near the shore. I usually ask the B&B's owners to suggest a place to eat dinner, and this one recommended a pub down the road called The Ship. It was late in the afternoon, so we strolled down to the beach for the first of many hours spent chucking rocks into the water, a sport that nobody plays with more enthusiasm than Tim. He must've chucked a ton of stones into the English Channel during the course of our trip, and he got a good start at Herne Bay, because The Ship didn't open for dinner until much later that evening. Turned out there wasn't much to do in Herne Bay, either. After we walked as far down the shore line as we could, and checked out the local fruit & veg store, we wandered as slowly as we could back up the shore line towards the pub. This wasn't as easy as it sounds. The night was not favorable for strolling. The sun was gone behind the clouds all afternoon and the wind tore off the water up the beach, so that, while Tim was happily running up and down chucking rocks, Barb and I were huddled together, both frozen to the bone. Once it began to spit down rain, we said to hell with serving time and scurried the rest of the way down the seafront to The Ship, which was warm and friendly and serves a wonderful meal.