The author in front of the Canterbury Cathedral
Naughty boy, I didn’t post the latest update on my trip last night. Truth is I was exhausted from having walked over seven miles through Canterbury plus my stomach was still not reacting well to the large and delicious lunch I’d had. Anyway it’s the morning of my last full day. I have to vacate the lovely rooms I’ve stayed in since Thursday and move to a hotel for my last night, the reasons are not worth bothering with here but related to our aborted trip to Spain. Speaking of which, if my wife had not fallen and broke her patella we would have “enjoyed” a lot of rain in San Sebastián. Blessing in disguise (well disguised mind you) I suppose. Here it is sunny, yesterday it was not.
I took the train from London to Canterbury. It’s a scenic ride of just under an hour. It’s amazing how you can go virtually anywhere in this country by train and that trains are running all the time. Not expensive either.
From the railway station it was a short walk into town and what a beautiful town it is. Inevitably it has been polluted a bit by tourism and so much of what you see there is blatantly directed to the tourist trade. But the town’s charm overcomes this. I loved Canterbury.
The must-do stop is the Canterbury Cathedral. A church was initially build there in 570 (it’s older than me!) but the Cathedral went up in it’s current form (give or take) in 1070. It’s a magnificent structure. I happened to get in just in time for one of the min-talks that are provided and it was on the topic most of interest to me among those offered: Canterbury Cathedral during World War II. Our lecturer was an older gentleman straight out of central casting. He was made for the role. He told us about the brave souls — mostly either boys or old men — who were stationed on the roof during the Blitz to put out fires. There was little that they could do about direct hits but there was a big job to do putting out fires from incendiaries. The Cathedral sustained little damage during the war although the library was destroyed. Fortunately they’d had the sense to clear out all the books, documents and artifacts housed there before hand.
The Cathedral is massive and there’s much to see. Both overly ornate and beautiful. Including the many who are entombed there. Sacred ground everywhere.
After my visit I found a pub that served an appetizing looking plate of fish and chips. The plate I ordered came with a side of breaded scallops along with smashed peas. My god the meal was delectable. I had a pint of N/A beer with it. I was full. Very, very full. For the rest of the day full.
I then went in search of the Roman Museum. It was virtually under my nose both a few minutes from the cathedral and from the pub. But it was on a side street that I ignored so I managed to traipse all over the city in search of it at one point being given directions that sent me to the far end of town. No matter. I’d planned a stroll after the museum, this simply meant reversing the order.
The museum was fine. Lots of artifacts from when the Romans ruled the town, a fascinating era to be sure. There were also exhibits related to pre-Roman times during the Iron Age.
The Blitz was also mentioned here for some of the bombing resulted in many Roman ruins being unearthed. As also happened with the construction of the Marlowe Theater (Christopher the playwright, not Philip the fictional detective).
From there I made my way back to the railway station and returned to London. I felt like a native coming back. I knew how to get to the tube station, I knew which train to catch in which direction and then I knew where to get the bus home.
I’ll be checking out of here and into there later then I plan to go see the Wallace Collection. I’m sure you’ll look forward to hearing about my further adventures as I look forward to having them.
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