England Day 12 - Canterbury, the white cliffs of Dover, and Leeds Castle
Woke up and made our way downstairs to meet up for our tour with Premium (I think we tried every major tour group in London except for Evan Evans!). All tours were rather late picking up thanks to heavy London traffic that morning, so we had a nice talk with a family going off on an Evan Evans tour that morning (they were staying in a timeshare further down the road). Eventually our tourguide, Barry popped up and we once again boarded a coach bound for Victoria Station.
It happened that Barry was going to be our tourguide for the day (though not the coach, we had to disembark at Victoria and re-board another) so he hyped us up for what we would be doing that day (“Such a wonderful tour of Leeds, and we at Premium like to think that we give you something extra than all the others, so you get a *private* guided tour. Aren’t you all lucky? And then on the ride back along the Thames you can all get some giggle water and some biscuits.”) Giggle water ^_^;;. Our expected time back in London at Westminster Pier was 7pm.
Queuing at Victoria Station this time was a bit more chaotic than it had been for our Golden Tour some days prior. We were basically left to our own devices in terms of discovering which queue line was for which tour, but regardless managed to board. The coach ended up not fully loaded, so we were all able to spread out a bit. Had a large contingent from Texas there, which certainly livened things up *sg*. As our coach pulled away we noticed a sign posted at the station: “No reversing without rear end supervision.” Yes.
A note: on Premium Tours no eating or drinking of hot liquids is allowed, but you can purchase drinks from the bus driver for 50pence, which is actually a really excellent deal.
As we were heading off to Leeds we exited London in a different direction from the way our other tours had done (out through the Docklands), but were soon out on the main motorway. About an hour or so into it, Barry informed us that there had been a severe accident on the major motorway right around Leeds Castle, effectively stopping all traffic in that direction. Apparently even the road itself was on fire 0_o;;.
To circumvent this we instead headed off towards Canterbury Cathedral, where we were dropped off and walked through the quiet morning town to the cathedral itself. You are allowed to take pictures here, but must first purchase a ‘permit’ for a few pounds. We were all handed maps but were given no guided tour, instead allowed to wander through ourselves. Once we exhausted the Cathedral (I have to admit that somehow I liked the Salisbury Cathedral better, but it was probably just the timing of it) we wandered through the gift shop, where this poor shopkeep was futilely trying to create a tower of jams, as they all were hell-bent on coming straight back down (some with a rather sticky result). Once we’d fully exited the cathedral mom headed off for coffee (how sad that there’s a Starbucks *right near* the cathedral!), whereas Alana and I headed across the street to treat ourselves to ice-cream (it was roughly mid-morning now, and we hadn’t eaten anything yet). Single scoop of coffee and walnut Italian ice cream…yum!
We made our own way back down through the town to the bus, where we boarded for our next destination: the white cliffs of Dover.
Dover was truly spectacular. It was also our lunch stop for the day at the Lighthouse Inn, and we’d picked from a set menu on the bus prior to arrival (I chose the chicken with blue-cheese sauce which I’d been secretly hoping they would put on the side. The other choices were vegetarian stroganoff, fish and chips, cod I believe (?), and pork. With one drink this was 11.25GBP per person…certainly *not* a steal by any means.) However, the location - once we exited the restaurant - was beautiful, and well worth the somewhat mediocre lunch.
There were no fences at the edge, giving you a thrill as you looked over the side at all the spectacular scenery on either side of you, with an incredibly blue-green ocean laid out beneath. The horizon was a misty haze in the distance, and somewhere in its depths lay Paris. We meandered through the tall grasses and the occasional hovering bumblebee, just soaking it all in. Getting back on the bus came much too soon.
Our next stop was now Leeds Castle, and coming from a different direction than we would have that morning, we could see the truly devastating accident that had occurred. One lorry was completely overturned, and we learned later the poor soul driving it had unfortunately not made it. Another car was crashed into a second lorry, but we never discovered their occupants’ outcomes.
Barry, trying to salvage the tour now that our special private access to the castle “before the hoi polloi” was dashed (thanks to our late arrival), was now touting how we would still get a chance to be dropped off right at the Castle gates, whereas the hoi polloi would have to use something so common as a small passenger train. Alas poor Barry, as not even that seemed to go his way, and the guards did not allow the coach up. We certainly didn’t mind in the least, as the small train that ferried people from the parking area to the Castle was quite lovely. On the way up Alana and I decided that with our forty-five minutes we would finally forgo a castle in favor of the grounds themselves - something that we hadn’t done on any other tour. Mom however still wanted to see the castle, so we parted ways.
Leeds is touted as the prettiest castle in the world, and it certainly is extremely lovely, especially with the sunlight beaming in and out from among the clouds. They’re known for their swans, especially black ones, and we saw these as we strolled up along one of the ponds on the grounds. Many people were out enjoying the day; sunning on the grassy banks, taking picnics, children running up as close as they dared to the beautiful birds. Our goal, however, was the hedge maze.
*laughs* All I can say is, thank god we found our way out of that maze in time! I expected something small to keep the children entertained, certainly not all the dead ends that we managed to run in to. Laughing children ran along the alleys, their fellows lucky enough to have found the center shouting out directions. Unfortunately, those directions were in French, so didn’t do us too much good! Just as we were wondering if the bus would wait for us when we turned up missing, the blessed entrance revealed itself before us. Giggling at our ‘near miss’, we walked quickly back through the grounds, past the aviary (which we had not entered), and the Culpeper gardens, which were spectacular. Finding ourselves with a spare ten minutes we entered the gift shop up there, where we found mom perusing the Leeds wines (as gifts for those back in the states). I purchased a post card and a lovely little watercolor print of the Culpeper gardens. We all then walked our way back out to the location where the small train would pick us up to take us back to the coach, promising to swap pictures of what we’d seen. I wish we’d had more time to truly appreciate Leeds; it was beautiful.
Our last stop for the day was Greenwich. Barry, perhaps trying to salvage the day, decided that since we had missed our private tour of Leeds, he would take us on a walking tour in Greenwich. Unfortunately he somewhat misgauged the time we had before the Thames cruise we had to catch, so what was supposed to be a “leisurely stroll” became a rollicking gait through one of the royal parks. We passed by the Royal Observatory (which unfortunately had scaffolding all around it - I swear, the scaffolding companies in England must be rich!), and found our way to a nice view of one side of London, along with the Isle of Dogs and Canary Warf. Directly to the left was the prime meridian, where we all grabbed quick snapshots of ourselves poised across two hemispheres before walking down a very steep hill towards the pier where our cruise would leave from, and the Cutty Sark.
The Cutty Sark was the part that least interested us about the tour, so luckily we just kind of wandered about around it until Barry procured our cruise tickets. We boarded the ship to a very nice setting below decks, with the windows open to catch the breezes off the Thames, and each place set with a scone (pre-packaged), a pre-packaged container of jam and one of butter, and an offer of a drink (champagne, tea, or coffee. They allowed a Sprite (lemonade) to Alana). Bubbly, yum! The afternoon tea, despite being pre-packaged, was actually very lovely. When we were finished we went above decks to enjoy the views as we set off towards Westminster Pier.
We were somewhat sorry to learn that the cruise we’d taken yesterday and this one came with the same canned, seeming “random” commentaries as we went down the river, but our tourguide yesterday was much better than the one we’d gotten today. Still, it was a nice end to the day.
We disembarked at Westminster and walked our way up to the Embankment Underground Stop, and somewhat warily rode the Bakerloo Line to Edgware (our first time on the Tube since the attacks). We stopped by the front desk of our hotel to ask if we could have an extended checkout the next day (I’m not sure how well-known a fact this is, but as long as you give them a time and it’s not too late, most hotels are happy to let you stay an extra hour in the room, provided that they’re not overly busy) before once again collapsing back into our rooms. Our last full day in London!