Canterbury Cathedral

Got up this morning, took the tube over to Charing Cross train station and hopped aboard a train to Canterbury, 62 miles away but 2 hours by train. This was actually my first real train ride to go someplace, not a tourist train ride! Pretty exciting! We went all through London to parts of town we haven't gotten to yet (but are on the list for this week), then out to he countryside and some small towns along the way. Being a Sunday, there was "major engineering work" on the line past Ashford so we had to hop on a "rail replacement service"bus the rest of the way. Int resting...we were on a double-decker bus going down little 2-lane country roads. Beautiful scenery---the largest strawberry field I have ever seen, it went on and on, and what looked like a small mountain or a really big hill in the not too far distance, sheep and horses and cute towns with houses crammed on top of each other. The trip out was ok...more on the return later....

Once in Canterbury we stopped for a bite on the way to the cathedral. Bad call....the worst meal so far. A chicken and bacon and cheese sandwich was a few slices of chicken on overly buttered and untoasted plain bread with fried ham type "bacon" that was undercooked, and Cat's didn't even have the cheese! Oh well...won't go there again!

Up the street and through a gate, actually an arched wall built I think 600 years ago that looked somewhat like a castle in the middle of the city, a few more blocks and to the Cathedral. I felt like I was at Busch Gardens yet it was all real and really old. The Cathedral is stuck behind the buildings of the town, all just kind of crammed in there. And it is massive! Parts date to over 1200 years ago. The blocks to build it, the design and intricate carvings and decoration are breathtaking. Not many stained glass windows are left, as many have been destroyed. The area where the choir is was burned and was left a shell 44 years after it was completed, but has been rebuilt. It is full of tombs of former important people in the Church including a prince who died 600 years ago. His funeral garments are on display... The preservation of history is amazing! I read a book about it on the trip back and have bunches of pictures...but I know none will do it justice. Talk to me when I get home and I will bore you with more details!

The bus trip back to the train in Ashford was almost frightening. I think the driver was a bit nutty. He kept running into tree branches that were hanging over the road, swerving and making the kids in the back of the double-decker scream! He was a real grouch too... but we made it back and had a successful train ride back to the city.

We decided to walk to dinner tonight since we rode so long today....we went in search of something good to eat. Really amazing how many people were out on the streets on a Sunday evening, and we aren't really in a hopping part of town. We walked, searched, and finally came to a block with 4-5 restaurants. Did some menu shopping and finally decided on an...Italian
place! It was not as good as last night's but was far better than lunch! Just FYI---a mixed salad here evidently means a mix of whatever you have on hand...mine had lots of leaves (lettuce I guess...looked like stuff from the yard), grapes, olives, tomatoes, topped with cold green beans! It was just strange, but I did eat the beans. Delicious strawberry meringues for dessert made up for the salad.

Got the tube back to the hotel...and the stuck up American in me came out.....Cat and I have been crammed into a room with not enough width to roll our suitcases in all the way (wall sticking out) and no more than 2 feet on either side of the bed. I know rooms in Europe are smaller than in the US but we remembered today that we had booked a room that was supposed to have 2 beds and a seating area....didn't' have either! So I asked if there were larger rooms available. Needless to say we are now on the 9th floor in a huge room with 2 chairs to sit in and separate beds to sleep in. We have a views of the park behind the hotel and some apartment buildings, and also look sideways to Hyde Park. Our bathroom is actually has a door wide enough to get through and tons of space. (the last one was minuscule...like a
bathroom-ette!) I know I should have said something to them before tonight at 9 pm but I really didn't want to cause trouble. However, today when we saw the mold growing on the bathroom ceiling and the whole room steaming up when one of us showered, and the fact that we were literally tripping on each other and could not even walk around the bed....I'd had enough!

Now I need to go that nice big room and catch a few hours of sleep....it's 11pm here and we have a wake -up call at 3:30 am!!!!! (You guys won't have gone to bed yet when we are getting back up!) Our taxi arrives at 4:30 to take us to the station for the Eurostar to BELGIUM!!!!! I plan to sleep on the train but not in the chunnel!

nighty night!