Rapher's Log - Stardate 05/31/16
Only a few days left of vacation (boo hoo), so let's see how quickly I can get through the rest of these... On today's menu, another location revisit and another out of town journey.
Back on our first trip to England, we did a few organized coach tours and one of them was to Leeds Castle, Dover & Canterbury. Ten years later, we decided to revisit Canterbury...to search for the elusive eighth knick-knack. We've both read this tongue-in-cheek write up on Canterbury's history and found it to be quite funny.
http://www.hillside.co.uk/articles/canterbury.html
Ok, so this trip at least did not involve us standing on trains or waiting for a train that wasn't coming to that station. The fares were similar, as were the times, so we took National Express to Canterbury. The coach station is a quick walk from our hotel so it worked out well, from that perspective. It was a shame the weather didn't seem to be in the mood to do the same. It was looking like it was going to rain. Oh well, what can you do? Got to Victoria Coach Stn for the 7:30 coach, got to Canterbury around 9:30. Walked from the bus station, through the pedestrian mall area (seriously, I think every town/city in England has one of these, it's great!) to the Cathedral.
Took a bit more in this time, as we wandered through the Cathedral. Naturally, I was still having to take (in)frequent breaks...but at least the Phantom of the Opera didn't put in a musical appearance. *G* Went down into the Crypt area this time, which I don't believe we'd gotten to on our previous visit. I spent a lot of time down there, looking around, relaxing, people watching, not taking photos (they weren't allowed). Eventually met back up with Sandra and hit the gift shop. We didn't revisit the cloisters or spend much time outside because it was just too darn cold/windy. Did visit the toilets though.
I'm sure you're wondering why I chose to mention this now, when I've not really made a habit of discussing my bathroom visits before. The reason was the toilet stalls. Each stall has the normal toilet & accessories, but each one also has a sink, mirror, soap dispenser & hand dryer. Self contained cleanliness! This hadn't changed from our previous visit and just goes to show how much of an impression it made that we both remembered it.
Ok, maybe we're just weird like that. *G* (yes, we both took pictures of the stalls too...)
Left the Cathedral around 11:00 and went back to the pedestrian area. Found a pretty cool candy store where I bought Pop Tarts imported from the US - Maple Bacon flavoured. Also bought some Love Hearts (still with all colours), fudge...there may have been more, I can't recall. Eventually, we found ourselves at Starbucks again for lunch (they've got these toasty cheese sandwiches which are quite tasty). After lunch, we did a little more wandering but my feet/knee were stopping us from doing a lot of walking and, to be honest, the cold temperatures weren't exactly making us want to wander a lot. We did make it all the way down High Street, checking out some interesting stores and cool old buildings. Oh, and we ended up stopping in Costas for a bit of a break, just to rest & get out of the weather. Damn, I love their Tropical coolers.
And a cool old building was our next planned visit - St. Augustine's Abbey. It was a bit of a walk away, and, naturally, we got turned around at one point. Luckily, a local overheard us and pointed us in the right direction. We eventually found our way to the Abbey (ruins, actually) where we decided not to go in. It was a fairly open area, not much to see, costing £6.40. We decided it wasn't really worth and headed back to the main area. Found ourselves in front of St Thomas' Roman Catholic Church, where we ended up sitting on a bench for about 30 minutes. The winds weren't so bad and I somehow managed to get Wi-Fi there. Spent some time feeding peanuts to pigeons, before we headed to the Pizza Hut we'd seen earlier, for a slow, sit down supper.
Oh, did I mention that our coach didn't leave until 5:50pm? Normally, we go for that much time in these places, to make sure we're not rushed...but when the weather isn't so pleasant, it can be a hellish long time to kill.
Visited a few more stores after supper, but had to be quick in some, as a lot of them were closing at 5:30 (as did the public washrooms...actually, those closed earlier). Eventually, we made our way back to the bus station for the 5:50 coach.
Which arrived around 6:05 or so. Don't know what happened there but it seemed like a heck of a long wait as we wondered where it was. Eventually got into London around 8:00. Oh! Something we'd noticed in the morning, which was further confirmed in the evening...I think the reason these coaches take a few hours to get to a place is because it takes 'em almost an hour just to get out of London. And the same amount of time to get to the coach station. Not exactly taking the direct route.
And we were further slowed down getting into Victoria Coach Station. We were stuck on one of the side streets for at least 10 minutes. When we got into the station, we saw that the police had one other coach cordoned off, as they seemed to be checking every passenger/bag on it. Funny, there had also been a police car outside of the station in the morning...
Short walk back to the hotel. When I went to cross Warwick Way, the car that went through the intersection actually stopped after he went past me, waited for me to cross behind him, then he pulled away. Bizarre. Less bizarre, and more appreciated, was the return of QI to Dave's schedule. The darts tournament was finally over!
Oh! Almost forgot...after searching through the many tourist gift shops in Canterbury, Sandra decided that this was the Elusive Eighth Knick-Knack (or trinket). I think it is too. *G*
http://www.duck-shop.co.uk/shop_cfg/rubberduck/Badeente_27.11.2012_12-54-57.JPG
Tomorrow...*le sai*...our last day in London. And how'd that go?
Back on our first trip to England, we did a few organized coach tours and one of them was to Leeds Castle, Dover & Canterbury. Ten years later, we decided to revisit Canterbury...to search for the elusive eighth knick-knack. We've both read this tongue-in-cheek write up on Canterbury's history and found it to be quite funny.
http://www.hillside.co.uk/articles/canterbury.html
Ok, so this trip at least did not involve us standing on trains or waiting for a train that wasn't coming to that station. The fares were similar, as were the times, so we took National Express to Canterbury. The coach station is a quick walk from our hotel so it worked out well, from that perspective. It was a shame the weather didn't seem to be in the mood to do the same. It was looking like it was going to rain. Oh well, what can you do? Got to Victoria Coach Stn for the 7:30 coach, got to Canterbury around 9:30. Walked from the bus station, through the pedestrian mall area (seriously, I think every town/city in England has one of these, it's great!) to the Cathedral.
Took a bit more in this time, as we wandered through the Cathedral. Naturally, I was still having to take (in)frequent breaks...but at least the Phantom of the Opera didn't put in a musical appearance. *G* Went down into the Crypt area this time, which I don't believe we'd gotten to on our previous visit. I spent a lot of time down there, looking around, relaxing, people watching, not taking photos (they weren't allowed). Eventually met back up with Sandra and hit the gift shop. We didn't revisit the cloisters or spend much time outside because it was just too darn cold/windy. Did visit the toilets though.
I'm sure you're wondering why I chose to mention this now, when I've not really made a habit of discussing my bathroom visits before. The reason was the toilet stalls. Each stall has the normal toilet & accessories, but each one also has a sink, mirror, soap dispenser & hand dryer. Self contained cleanliness! This hadn't changed from our previous visit and just goes to show how much of an impression it made that we both remembered it.
Ok, maybe we're just weird like that. *G* (yes, we both took pictures of the stalls too...)
Left the Cathedral around 11:00 and went back to the pedestrian area. Found a pretty cool candy store where I bought Pop Tarts imported from the US - Maple Bacon flavoured. Also bought some Love Hearts (still with all colours), fudge...there may have been more, I can't recall. Eventually, we found ourselves at Starbucks again for lunch (they've got these toasty cheese sandwiches which are quite tasty). After lunch, we did a little more wandering but my feet/knee were stopping us from doing a lot of walking and, to be honest, the cold temperatures weren't exactly making us want to wander a lot. We did make it all the way down High Street, checking out some interesting stores and cool old buildings. Oh, and we ended up stopping in Costas for a bit of a break, just to rest & get out of the weather. Damn, I love their Tropical coolers.
And a cool old building was our next planned visit - St. Augustine's Abbey. It was a bit of a walk away, and, naturally, we got turned around at one point. Luckily, a local overheard us and pointed us in the right direction. We eventually found our way to the Abbey (ruins, actually) where we decided not to go in. It was a fairly open area, not much to see, costing £6.40. We decided it wasn't really worth and headed back to the main area. Found ourselves in front of St Thomas' Roman Catholic Church, where we ended up sitting on a bench for about 30 minutes. The winds weren't so bad and I somehow managed to get Wi-Fi there. Spent some time feeding peanuts to pigeons, before we headed to the Pizza Hut we'd seen earlier, for a slow, sit down supper.
Oh, did I mention that our coach didn't leave until 5:50pm? Normally, we go for that much time in these places, to make sure we're not rushed...but when the weather isn't so pleasant, it can be a hellish long time to kill.
Visited a few more stores after supper, but had to be quick in some, as a lot of them were closing at 5:30 (as did the public washrooms...actually, those closed earlier). Eventually, we made our way back to the bus station for the 5:50 coach.
Which arrived around 6:05 or so. Don't know what happened there but it seemed like a heck of a long wait as we wondered where it was. Eventually got into London around 8:00. Oh! Something we'd noticed in the morning, which was further confirmed in the evening...I think the reason these coaches take a few hours to get to a place is because it takes 'em almost an hour just to get out of London. And the same amount of time to get to the coach station. Not exactly taking the direct route.
And we were further slowed down getting into Victoria Coach Station. We were stuck on one of the side streets for at least 10 minutes. When we got into the station, we saw that the police had one other coach cordoned off, as they seemed to be checking every passenger/bag on it. Funny, there had also been a police car outside of the station in the morning...
Short walk back to the hotel. When I went to cross Warwick Way, the car that went through the intersection actually stopped after he went past me, waited for me to cross behind him, then he pulled away. Bizarre. Less bizarre, and more appreciated, was the return of QI to Dave's schedule. The darts tournament was finally over!
Oh! Almost forgot...after searching through the many tourist gift shops in Canterbury, Sandra decided that this was the Elusive Eighth Knick-Knack (or trinket). I think it is too. *G*
http://www.duck-shop.co.uk/shop_cfg/rubberduck/Badeente_27.11.2012_12-54-57.JPG
Tomorrow...*le sai*...our last day in London. And how'd that go?