Day Twenty-Four Monday June 22 Snow Day

Day Twenty-Four  Monday June 22 


No walking today,  there's been a change of plans based on emergency and extreme need.

 We're going SHOPPING in Canterbury! 

The rain was a deciding factor but really we just wanted to take a break. We have the last leg tomorrow, 12 miles, and I needed a reward.

I did take a 2.75 mile walk from the hotel to Canterbury along the Great Stour Way, a 3 mile bike/walk route that follows the River Stour to Canterbury, past backyards, a lake, water fowl, historic sites and info boards - very peaceful , beautiful , flowing river. 

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Great-Crested Grebe

In the 15th century, property development wasn't about location, location, location, it was about crenelation, crenelation, crenelation! This was when wealthy landowners put battlements on their manor houses to make them look like castles. That's exactly what Sir Thomas Browne of Tonford Manor did in 1449. To be fair, his extravagance did pay off, because Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon stayed there in 1512. Traces of these fortifications can still be seen peaking out of the bushes and vines.

Walking under my cheapo umbrella.

AH HA! Gotcha!  A glimpse of the cathedral at last! 

Run! Run! Run! 

Someone carved ducks and a muskrat into the picnic table top. Isn't all this just too "Wind in the Willows"? 

Coming into medieval Canterbury by the West Gate. It's familiar to me now and at the same time it seems like ages ago I was walking past St Dunstan's. I would definitely return here, there is so much more to do and see. Walking into town this last day at a quiet pace was the perfect way to say goodbye. 

We had a snack here later, it's Cafe Nero,  a chain coffee shop. But look.... in 1573 Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the rooms upstairs! The pargeting (ornamental plasterwork) above the timber frame is original. 
All in all a productive and successful, fun shopping spree in Canterbury. We had lunch upstairs in a Tudor building, a snack break as mentioned above, and loads of people watching. The place is lively and happy, although there are too many French school kids - it looks like they ferry them over for 45 minutes of culture then set them loose to run around like gangs of gnats with fart noise devices.
Everyone we met was helpful and friendly, and alive - unlike.................
DOVER.