Canterbury - Friday

After dinner with Di, Barry & Co, and the drive back to Canterbury, we didn’t rush to get moving this morning. We had a slow breakfast at Sheila’s nearby, showed our room key, got 10% discount, looked at them, or liked them or something on Facebook (sorry Di, had to ask one of the staff exactly what to do) and got another 5% discount.

We drove to the nearby park and ride and went into the city. Between us we bought a new water bottle, reading glasses, sandals for Gary, coffee for all of us and looked over the map of things to do.

First stop was the Canterbury Cathedral, a huge complex of corridors, little chapels, cloisters, ruins outside as well as the main cathedral and the crypt below. Some beautiful stained glass windows, helpful guides and many opportunities to temporarily get lost. There has been a cathedral on the site since the Roman period. Thomas Beckett was murdered in the cathedral in 1170, by 4 knights of Henry II. His tomb is in Trinity Chapel, above the crypt where the tomb was from 1170 to 1220.

We walked to the Westgate Tower, built in 1380, across to Greyfriars Chapel, straddling the river Stour, unfortunately not accessible and on to walk around part of the old city wall. Back to the bus to the Park and ride car park, into Morrisons to buy stuff to eat tonight and breakfast tomorrow and back to the classy Travelodge.

 

We are booked on the ferry, tomorrow, from Dover to Calais, scheduled to leave at 9:25 am. Hope there are no long hold ups. Need to leave the hotel around 7:15 to allow travelling time, passport control etc. Breakfast in the car, in the ferry queue.

Dover - Thursday

Straight to Dover Castle this morning. There are 2 tunnels in the cliff that are open to the public and a tour through one tunnel with very effective audio visual presentations throughout of the Dunkirk evacuation (Operation Dynamo). This tour took about 45 minutes. Once we were out of this tunnel, we went to wait for the tunnel tour through the hospital tunnels. There was half an hour wait so we thought we’d have a look at other stuff and come back in an hour. A couple of hours later, we managed to get back. Both tunnel tours were great, with good displays to show what the conditions were like. The hospital tunnels were used over various time frames, sometimes not used because of health conditions in the damp tunnels then opened to a smaller extent, with better ventilation etc.

Between tunnel visits, we went to the Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment museum, which detailed the history of regiments that culminated in the Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment – history info overload but fascinating.

From there we climbed Henry II’s great tower, within the castle keep, fantastic views over Dover. There were so many passages and rooms in so many directions that we managed to miss quite a few.

We walked through part of the medieval tunnels and on around part of the walls to Admiralty lookout. This offered spectacular views over the harbour and was where shipping watch was kept and directions were given to fire at incoming ships (during the war of course).

  

Back to the Hospital Tunnel for the tour, exited just near the Admiralty lookout, had another look and went on to the church of St Mary-in-Castro and the 1st Century Roman Pharos (light house).

By now, it’s getting late and we went back to the car and drove down to the Dover port area. We walked 20 minutes out along a pier within the harbour to a cafe that was closed and therefore didn’t serve coffee, and back to the car. Just near the car we met a couple of French families, on their way to London. So what? Well they were cycling to London. Not totally unusual? One of the bikes had pedals at the front for one of the children and another set further back for dad and an articulated frame attached to the back of the bike for another kid. Another bike also had an articulated frame for/with a child. There were a couple of single bikes and a tandem.

Left there and found a carpark opposite Di & Barry’s B&B. We didn’t want to park in their forecourt because they had a full house and needed the limited parking spaces. It was great to see them and they, including Di’s mum and dad, Mary & John, gave us such a huge welcome that it seemed that they were pleased to see us. After a big takeaway, just a little wine, lots of talking and lots of laughs, unfortunately we had to leave and drive to Canterbury, about half an hour away, to the Travelodge, booked but not yet checked in. Got there after 11pm and were were all very tired, so no blog last night.