Canterbury - Dover - Orpington

Canterbury Cathedral

The day began at an early hour as I knew I had a busy day ahead. Breakfast at 7.30 am and all packed up ready to go by 9am, which is when the Cathedral opened.

The audio tours weren't available until 9.30 am but when I explained to the nice young man that I had to be checked out by 11 am he provided me with one and even didn't charge me.

I loved the tour around the Cathedral but was especially interested in the story of St Thomas A'Beckett. Henry II had appointed Thomas as the Archbishop of Canterbury, thinking he wold support the King, but the opposite happened and he supported the Church. So Henry moaned loudly about this man, and some knights of the realm took it into their own hands to murder him. Unfortunately this blew up in their faces and people put Thomas on a pedestal and made pilgrimages to Canterbury to pray at his grave.... hence Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.... 

Art piece depicting the 4 swords that were used to slay Thomas

Marble tile on the floor where Thomas was slain

The rest of the tour was interesting but they are doing a major renovation on the Cathedral so not all places were accessible.

So after that uplifting start to the day I set Gaby Garmin for Dover. It was a very misty morning and the drive was a little challenging. I arrived at Dover Castle and the  girl on the desk suggested I might like to go and queue  up for the interactive tour about Dunkirk. It was a half an hour wait, but it was worth it. Really interesting and informative where they took us through how the tunnels at Dover Castle were used in the defence of Britain in WW2, especially in Dunkirk. We weren't allowed to take any pics inside, so here's one of the outside...

Outside the entrance to the Dover Castle tunnels

As you can see it was a bit chilly and very foggy and  sadly I wasn't able to see the White Cliffs of Dover as it was too foggy.

After the tour I went up to the actual Castle - big bloody hill to climb!- but it was really too foggy to see or do anything, so I decided to move on as I had arranged to spend the night with my second cousin Audrey and her husband Kevin in Orpington in Kent.

After the severe talking to I had with Gaby Garmin yesterday, I was delighted to say she took me nearly all the way home along the A20 which is a major freeway. But just as I neared the end of my journey, she did it again and took me via these little one lane roads lines with hedges. I eventually reached my destination but not without the trauma of having to traverse these little roads with bigger cars coming the other way towards me. Fortunately Kevin is happy playing with Technology and has had a look at Gaby and sorted out some settings. In the meantime, Audrey and Kevin took me down to the Orpington Shopping  Centre and bought me a new sim card for my phone so I can now use Google maps on a local sim. Thank you - my heroes!!!

So I've had a lovely evening with Audrey and Kevin as we shared a great meal and then Audrey has taken me through our family tree quite extensively. It's been a wonderful day, topped off with the warm feeling of being with family again .