Canterbury via Dover

Wednesday, 27 November - Thursday, 28 November 2019

Wednesday, 27 November

Here is a rare photo of my this morning as I study the route of today's drive before checking out of the B&B.

Talking about the B&B.  What an incredible breakfast we had.  The rooms are actually above a really nice bistro called Whitehouse.  We could order anything we wanted off the menu...it was so good.  Rye really was a great overnight stop.

Dover is just a one hour drive away, so we loaded into the car and headed out and arrived right at 11 AM.  We are doing a walking tour that Rick Steves has in his book.  It starts in the Market Square with the Dover Museum. 

Inside the Dover Museum is a surprising item, a large and well-preserved 3,500-year-old Bronze Age boat unearthed near here in September 1992.  According to the display, it is "the oldest know sea-going vessel in the world."  The boat consists of four oak planks held together with oak wedges and yew stitches with the holes packed with moss and beeswax.  It is 31 feet long and 8 feet wide.  Very interesting.

This is a model in a display that shows what the boat looked like:

We left the museum and continued our Dover walk.  Here is Market Square with Dover Castle in the fog.  Dover isn't that pretty, basically because it was destroyed in WWII and had to rebuild.

Here is a better photo of Dover Castle.  It cost £20 per person to visit, so we decided to skip it.  We have been to many castles and this one didn't seem too special.  The only thing we would have liked to see is the secret WWII tunnels.

We then walked down to the waterfront promenade along the English Channel.

Here, I am standing at the start (or finish) for people swimming across the English Channel to/from France.  You can see the swimmers on the top of the rock pedestals.

Aha...here are some of the White Cliffs of Dover:

We did decide not to visit the White Cliffs of Dover Visitor Center since we saw some spectacular cliffs yesterday, so we returned to the car and drove the rest of the way to Canterbury, 30 minutes away.

We checked into the B&B around 3 PM, settled in, then went out to explore.  That is Canterbury Cathedral in the background:

5 minutes from leaving the B&B, we arrived to The Foundry Brewpub where we had a flight:

Oh...we also had dinner here which was pretty good.  After dinner we headed back tot he B&B.  We have a lot to see in Canterbury tomorrow, so we want to get an early start.

Wednesday, 28 November

Today we tour Canterbury then head to a roadside hotel just outside of London to make it easier to drop the car off tomorrow morning.

The Canterbury Cathedral opens up at 9 AM, so our plan is to be there then.  Luckily, our B&B is a 1 minute walk to the cathedral, so we didn't have wake too early.  After the continental breakfast at the B&B, checked out of the hotel, put our bags in the car, and headed to the Cathedral.

The Canterbury Cathedral is the headquarters of the Anglican Church (like the English Vatican).  In the 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in front of the alter.  Becket was canonized a saint 3 years later, and the Canterbury Cathedral became a destination for pilgrims.  This place is huge.  We spend 1.5 hours following Rick Steves' Self-Guided Tour in the book as Tim took 65 photo...and here they all are.  Just kidding.  Here are the highlights:

Canterbury Cathedral Nave

Canterbury Cathedral Cloister

Thomas Becket Memorial

Reading about Thomas Becket Memorial

Choir

Shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury

Shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury

Headed toward the exit

The next stop is the quirky Canterbury Tales experience.  When in Canterbury, you must...right?!?  This experience uses live actors, lighting effects, and plaster figures.  It dramatizes five of the tales in amusement-park like rooms.  The Canterbury Tales were written by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400.

Geoffrey Chaucer...maybe?

The Miller's Tale

The Wife of Bath's Tale

The Nuns' Priest's Tale

As I was putting together this Blog entry, I tried to find more information on this place and found that it has closed for good..too bad.

After the Canterbury Tales Experience, we wondered around town:

Cool old half-timbered buildings and cobblestone streets.

Christ Church Gate (1504 - 1521)

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343 -1400)

The West Gate

Very higgly-piggly

After the walking tour it was time to eat.  I have had a craving for Chinese food for a while...actually, I always crave Chinese food, so I found a place on the phone that had pretty good reviews.  We wound up at Super Noodle and wow....it was really good.  I guess I forgot to tell you that I wasn't really feeling great, so after lunch we headed to our car and drove to a Best Western just outside of London.

We arrived at the hotel and I got under the covers.  We have to return the car by 10 AM and it should be about a 1 hour drive, but we want to give ourselves plenty of time to account for traffic and getting lost, so we are leaving around 8:15 AM.  Until then...