Blogs from Canterbury, Kent, England, United Kingdom, Europe

I gambled that the rail strIke would have enough trains running so that I could get to London and then on to Canterbury. The underground in London was the biggest challenge with closed or severely delayed trains. There is a high speed train from St Pancras that gets you to Canterbury in an hour but you do not see much charming landscape. I guess it’s a good thing for a day trip like today. There were less crowds on Canterbury’s high street, at least until three when school children were released from school. There were a lot less groups of international students than the last time I was here. I went to the historic restaurant on the river, my usual place for lunch. The building is so old that I have to duck under the dark ... read more

Hiking from Canterbury to Dover This year we decided to take the first week of our vacation to go on a hike. The trail we chose is an ancient pilgrim route called Via Francigena. The route goes from Canterbury in England to Rome in Italy. We have no intension of walking all of it. We don't have the time. Walking all of it would take maybe three months. But also, it wouldn't be fun. We enjoy hiking but one week is quite enough for us. More than that and it would turn into a project and that is not what we are after. We began the hike in Canterbury. Before we went there we only knew of two things about that city: 1 it has a cathedral 2 there is a book named the Canterbury Tales ... read more

As explained in my blog the purpose of my trip to England was twofold; firstly, to discover my maternal ancestry in Devon and secondly to walk the last few miles of the Old Way Pilgrimage to Canterbury. This blog covers the second of these two purposes. 1 - 5 May 2019 Wednesday through Sunday. I arrived on a flight from Denver to Heathrow at about noon and was met by nephew Jeremy. We had just a few minutes before he had to return to London for a meeting. We had coffee and talked about his and Nadine's forthcoming trip to Chile and Easter Island and my plans for my time in England. He has accepted an assistant professorship in Economics at Bristol University in the fall, and his wife Nadine, who is a doctor, will be ... read more

The new chapter on our adventure starts with a pleasant breakfast. We stayed in this hotel two years ago and found it a great starting point for our journey to the Euro Tunnel terminal about thirty minutes drive away. We have plenty of time. Already we are thirty minutes ahead of schedule. Once in the United Kingdom we plan to visit Canterbury Cathedral and then drive on to our accommodation near Maidstone. All sounds rather simple and well planned. But how plans can change. After leaving the hotel Jane takes us through the local village towards the motorway entrance. Today is Bastille Day and it is too early for the celebrations to begin. Perhaps everyone is still in bed after last night’s carnival outing. We decide to use the toll road because it is cheap, quick, ... read more

Geo: 51.279, 1.07992 We use Bookings.com for all of our reservations. I picked out a place in Lavenham to spend one night. Apparently I didn't read the fine print. When we reached Lavenham, we couldn't find the place. It was actually in a small village about 4 miles away. The TomTom couldn't find it, but at least my phone could. We drove down a couple of lane and a half roads onto a single track road, then onto a dirt road. It was at the end of the dirt road. It was a 15th century farm house out in the middle of nowhere! We checked in and unpacked. She gave us a couple of places to have dinner. We picked one and made a reservation for 7:00PM. After dinner, we started to drive back in the ... read more