Pilgramage

Our final morning in London. Nothing planned, although I had hoped to get one last use of our tourist ticket. But it didn't happen, and we were keen to get on our way. The rental car booking last night entered a noon pickup by default, and we just went with that, while hoping that the car might be ready early. We asked for a taxi pickup at 11, and the rental office was only about 10 minutes away. There were no other customers, so we were away in about 20 minutes. Our car is a Peugeot (I can't find a way to spell that so that it looks correct!) and a diesel. It's a free upgrade from what we ordered, so that's nice. The only problem so far is that the windscreen wiper stick is where we are used to having the blinker. Bloody French.

We used the GPS to take us to Canterbury, but having arrived in the city we didn't know where to aim for, so we found ourselves winding round and round tiny cobblestoned streets with overhanging Elizabethan houses, being detoured around road works, and backing out of one-way or narrow streets with other cars coming through... all we wanted was to find somewhere to park the car so we could have lunch.

Finally we found a carpark with some parks available, so we left the car there and found a pleasant pub for a pleasant lunch. We had to get back to feed the meter, though (I'd forgotten that cars could be such albatrosses!) and we needed to find somewhere to stay tonight. A man at the Tourist Information Office was very helpful, and after we had secured a room at a B&B, he told us about a secret garden, just near the office, that is often overlooked by tourists but was worth a visit. We had a bit of time, so we popped in. Called the Greyfriars Garden, it is a lovely quiet spot, with a medieval friars' mill standing as a bridge over the river. This is a lovely time to be visiting England, with blossoms out, and daffodils and bluebells, hyacinths and tulips. Every day, the weather has been better than the last, and today we were happily wandering round in short sleeves. It must have been at good 20 degrees.

After we checked into our B&B (which we couldn't be late for because we'd got the last room but we hadn't guaranteed it) we walked back into town to visit the cathedral. Awesome, in the literal sense of the word. Even while we were queuing for tickets at the gate, the scale of the building compared to the tiny little humans we could see wandering round next to it, was astonishing. And that's the reaction in the 21st century. Can you imagine how they saw it 800 years ago?

After we left the cathedral, we walked through the pedestrianised streets of the city centre. It's a delightful town, with buildings from Tudor, Georgian and Victorian times all cheek by jowl. Even when the ground floors are McDonaldses and Subways, they're quite understated, letting the population have all the mod cons without the ugly modern corporate aggression.

I had to buy a camera, as mine seems about to die, and that was a bit out of town, and it was already 5.30. We had a coffee while we rested our feet, and then found a place for dinner. It was a really nice Italian restaurant, and although it was early, they had no other customers while we were there. Such a waste! We had some good wine, good salad, good pasta, and some lip-smacking tiramisu. Let me recommend to you: The Bull, High St, Canterbury.

We walked home through some nice middle-class semi-detached streets. What a pleasant place.