I dragged myself away from Chichester and caught the train to Canterbury. At least, I caught the train to London and then back to Canterbury. Why I thought trains would be waiting to take me exactly where I wanted to go, I have no idea, but I did. Never mind, I saw some lovely scenery on the way.
A bridge took me from the station straight onto the old city wall, and I wandered along to the city centre, a bit of a shock, to say the least, after the quietness of Chichester. It’s a tourist mecca, of course, because of its fabulous history.
I grabbed a bowl of pasta in a restaurant next to an incredibly noisy bus depot on the ring road, then wandered up the high street and relaxed on a bench in the square for awhile, watching the crowd and the buskers, before heading off to find my hotel.
My hotel was at the top of the street, not far from the West Gate.
It was a lovely-looking place but hard work. By this stage of my trip, I was over dragging my case up four floors of narrow, winding stairs. The hotel had had a recent update and I don’t think it would have hurt them to put in a lift while they were at it.
It had the weirdest bathroom. Because of the sloping roof, and the fact that the room was very small, they hadn’t been able to fit in a shower stall. The solution was to install a hand-held device in the bath. I never did work out how to spray myself without spraying the whole room at the same time. It wasn’t possible. I would have used the bath, I was quite looking forward to it, in fact – you don’t get access to many baths on your travels, but the plug didn’t work. I should have complained, I guess, but complaining is such an effort.
I spent a large part of the next day getting lost among the winding medieval streets with their gorgeous, ancient buildings.
This beautiful building in the centre of town is the Beaney Institute. It was a bequest of J. C. Beaney M.D. of my home town of Melbourne. I was quite excited when I saw that. You get a little home-sick when you’ve been away three weeks. I never want to go home, mind you, when the time comes.
I had to have a photo of this hotel. Charles Dickens stayed here.
Queen Elizabeth visited Canterbury in 1573, and entertained the Duke of Alencon here, in what was then the state room of the Crown Inn.
There’s a rumour that she was thinking of getting married but the night mustn’t have gone too well because the Duke moved on and the queen stayed single.
I love these old round churches with their lattice windows and their graves at the back door.
The River Stour winds through the city. So pretty.
Planning to the Nth 
Since I do my laundry in the bathroom sink – which lets me travel light – I always take a universal sink stopper. I think that if there’s no shower curtain you are supposed to sit in the bath to use the shower head. When i was growing up in England no one had showers, and I think they are still not universal.
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A very good idea about the sink stopper. And actually, yes, they could have supplied a shower curtain.
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I haven’t been to Canterbury yet. It looks so interesting and I love those old buildings especially the crooked one!! I’ve seen some odd English bathrooms as well.
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It’s a pretty amazing place, Darlene. You could spend a week just in the city area, I think, there’s so much history to check out. You could actually spend most of a day on the cathedral alone, it’s so massive. A very interesting place. And pretty, but very touristy.
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It’s many years since I visited Canterbury but your lovely post has persuaded me to try and get there again sometime soon. Hope you have a nice Easter! Marion
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That’s great, Marion. Maybe you could shoot down there over Easter. Cheers, Coral.
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The sloping walls of your bedroom remind me of a hotel where we stayed in Madrid – we refer to it as “the attic”, although we enjoyed both the room and location very much. The wall/roof sloped over the bathtub so that one could only barely [pun intended] stand at one end.
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Yes. It makes the whole exercise quite difficult.
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I’ve only been to Canterbury once- your past makes me wonder why I haven’t gone more often! As for your hotel, there’s probably a limit to the alterations they can put into such a historic building. I always take those attachments to be just for rinsing my hair – which means the plug definitely should have worked!
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I’m just having a whinge, Anabel. But the first thing I did when I got into my nice hotel in London was have a proper shower. Heaven.
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Despite living in the UK, I’ve never been to Canterbury. I must rectify this (off season). It looks lovely.
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Definitely worth a look. The cathedral is mind-boggling.
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Hand held showers, infact showers often seem an afterthought in the UK. I also love those gadgets in the shower that control the hot water.
Great photos.
I loved your reference to sitting on a bench to take in the scene.
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The Sun Hotel. Amazing! Each story higher square footage. The lowest floor must have been very well built to support the upper floors. Or do the engineers strengthen the beams?
Great photos. Adding Canterbury to my travel list.
I try to always have a package of wet wipes when traveling. Just in case I’m too tall to use the tub/shower!!!!! But going to get a sink stopper as insurance next trip. Cheers from across the pond.
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Thanks, MJ. The wet wipes are a great idea but one I always forget about. I must also try and remember a plug next time but I always assume a plug for the bath or sink will be included in the price of the accommodation. Ah well, the great challenges of travel.
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