Canterbury and Trains

Riding the Trains
On Wednesday we took the train and spent the day in Canterbury. It's been something of an experience, but we've learned how to read the train schedules and, for the most part, get on the right trains.

Things can become a bit exciting for me (pray for Karen!) when the electronic marquis provides incorrect arrival/departure updates, when the automated information system inside the trains announces the wrong stops, and/or there are two trains to the same destination leaving within minutes of each other waiting on opposite sides of the same platform--one being the fast train, one being the slow train. If you get on the slow train, you'll miss the connection you would otherwise make by riding the fast train. And when you ride a "two part" train, it's important to be in the appropriate part or else you might find yourself going in the wrong direction where the two parts disconnect.

No complaints, trust me. The train system here is wonderful, the coaches are clean and comfortable, and the staff at the stations are absolutely saint-like in helping lost and confused travelers like ourselves. It just takes some time to learn the nuances needed in navigating the system. Another nice thing is that if you do miss your train, they usually send another one to pick you up within thirty minutes to sixty minutes.

Our Day in Canterbury
So, there we were off to Canterbury which is a short train ride up the tracks from Ashford. Canterbury is an absolutely amazing place. We arrived just as the stores and streets were coming to life and found our way to the Cathedral first off.

It'd been thirty years since I'd toured a cathedral of this magnitude (Notre Dame in Paris being one and the cathedral in Cologne, Germany being the other) and it was breathtaking. It's beyond pictures and consequently we didn't take any inside. We were too awestruck. And then when you're that close, the whole outside of the structure is too large to fit in one photo...so ask to see the slide show when we get home.

The town itself is totally historic going back to the days of Rome with the construction of the cathedral beginning in AD 597. City walls, protected gates, a moat, brick streets, side streets, through ways, stores, specialty shops, restaurants, pubs, food stands, vendors, street musicians, and history, history, history. We even spent time in the West Gate Gaol ("jail" to us modern Americans) as tourists of course, not as guests of the sheriff.

When we went into the cathedral it was cloudy and the town was rather deserted. By the time we came out...it was sunny and there were people everywhere.

Here are some pictures from our day:

This is the West Gate into Canterbury.

The gaol is inside the gate up another stone and extremely spiral staircase.


Here's Karen inside the gaol making a brass rubbing as a souvenir. It cost 10p to make a rubbing (10p = 20 US cents). Karen and I made two each: the first as practice and the second as "keepers." One day you just may see the final products on display inside 368 McClain.

The main entrance to the cathedral.

Karen in a Cathedral Garden on a Cathedral Bench with the Cathedral Cat
who very much liked Americans.

The streets of Canterbury.

A view of the cathedral from the top of the West Gate Gaol.