The dogs woke Sarah at 6.30 am, possibly because Basil was rolling like a drunken sailor in the 50 miles per hour winds. When she put her head outside she was confronted by the second “Beast from the East” in the last three weeks, with temperatures back down to 0 degrees celsius and flurries of snow. I know President Putin is alleged to have it in for Britain at the moment, but surely sending his weather our way is beyond even his capabilities!
Basil braves the Beast from the East – Mark 2
Melek usually does a good impression of a grumpy old man when forced to go out for a walk, except when there is snow and then he pretends to be a giddy lamb and so it was this morning as he gambolled about in the fields which surround our aire.
Sarah and I hunkered down for a couple of hours hoping the weather may improve – but it didn’t. So in the late morning we and the dogs caught the excellent bus from the aire down to the city centre. The bus is included in our £3 a night charge – well done Canterbury.
Canterbury’s High Street was much the same as when we last wandered here 38 years ago, albeit with about a dozen new coffee shops. The weather was bitter, despite us donning full winter clothing and so our ambitions were limited to a general wander round and perhaps a quick look around the outside of the Cathedral.
The High Street
We approached the gates to the Cathedral precincts only to spy a long queue of people. Investigations revealed the Archbishop wanted £25 of our hard earned pension for the two of us just to look at his Cathedral from the outside!! The Cathedral is surrounded at close quarters by buildings and so it is difficult to see unless you get into the inner sanctum. Since we had seen the Cathedral numerous times before (for free) and that it is one of England’s less interesting ecclesiastical buildings from an architectural point of view, we politely declined Archbishop Justin’s kind invitation to tender.
The Cathedral Gates – this is as far as we got
Having visited hundreds of churches throughout Europe, this is the first time there has been an attempt to fleece us just to view the outside of a building. I don’t know whether to admire the Archbishop’s capitalist spirit or feel enraged that the man who preaches so much about the poor, only gives students and old age pensioners a two pound discount!!
We did get a sneaky glimpse for free
That left us with little to do except wander down memory lane, yet again. Trying to spot shops, pubs and restaurants from our student days. One idea was to have lunch at one of our student favourites, the Bishop’s Finger Pub. Unfortunately these days it is given over to large TV screens showing Premiership football and so, for us, there was no room at the inn.
Never fear my reliable app “Doggie Pubs” came out and we soon located a nice, quiet, dog friendly local to warm up and have lunch.
Westgate at St. Dunstan’s
The park and ride bus was equally efficient in whisking us, for free, back to Basil where I whiled away the afternoon watching England being whipped by Ireland at Rugby, in Basil’s cosy interior, making rare use of the inordinately expensive satellite TV system we had installed when Basil was purchased.
We are now nice and warm, albeit burning up Basil’s LPG supplies at an alarming rate. I don’t think we will step outside, except for dog walking, until the morning, when we intend to drive to Croydon to catch up with Sarah’s brother and his family.
A random Canterbury river shot