We had a good time in Canterbury last weekend. It was mildly shocking to travel for such a short time and end up in another country. Europeans are used to the close proximity of other countries and other cultures, but those of us from the U.S. just don't experience that very often.
We left our Brussels train station Saturday at 8:56am and arrived in England a little over an hour later. The scenery just whizzed by - I barely had time to read more than a few pages in my book and then we were there. I thought the Chunnel might be a little unnerving, but aside from my ears popping, it was just like a regular tunnel. There's no time to think about the millions of gallons of water above the train or the lack of escape possibilities should something happen. It only took about 20 minutes, which makes me wonder how fast the train is traveling (isn't that a classic math question: if a train traveling from Belgium to England takes 20 minutes to get through the Chunnel, what is its speed?). But the English Channel is not very wide, so I don't know why I expected crossing it to be a dramatic event!
Traveling by Eurostar train is so pleasant. The trains are light, clean, comfortable and more spacious than an airplane (R still has to scrunch up though), with a really smooth quiet ride. If you're in first class, which we were not, you get an actual meal served to you. For the common folks, there's a bar and cafe car instead. From Ashford, which is the first stop in England, we switched to a local train for the 20-minute ride to Canterbury. Our B&B was about a mile from the train station, which wasn't too bad of a walk, especially since we're used to carrying groceries and books about that far. After we checked in we walked around town a little to check out the lunch possibilities. R spied a promising looking pub, so we decided to try it out. It turned out to be an excellent choice. We had a very English lunch - Yorkshire pudding, sausages, mashed potatoes and ale for R, and I had chicken curry. After stuffing ourselves, we set out to see the sights.
The streets of the Old Town area are all cobblestone and most are closed to automobile traffic. There are quite a few old buildings, with white stone walls and brown beams, but many more are new structures built to 'fit in' with the surroundings. Unfortunately the quaintness is almost ruined by sheer number of tourists shopping and walking around. It was Saturday, though, so I'm sure it was more crowded than it might normally be. On the edge of town near our B&B we came across an old Norman castle ruin from 1050. Now that is old! For some reason, the burial mound on the castle grounds is called 'Dane John.' Rich thought 'Dane Richard' might be a better name.
That night we went on the Canterbury Ghost Tour. It was a walking tour led by this funny local ghost hunter guy, who wore a long black cape and a top hat. He told us stories about the various buildings and gave some of the history of the area. It was really cold and damp, but it was fun to hear about the haunted areas of town. Most of the 'haunted' buildings are from the 1500's, so I imagine there are a lot of ghosts running around!
Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast in our B&B. R went for the full 'cooked' English breakfast, which consisted of sausages, tomatoes, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, toast and tea. After eating that, he had enough energy to go out and plow a few fields! We spent the rest of the morning having tea at Starbucks, people-watching, and walking around town. Our train back to Belgium wasn't until 9:00pm, but we decided to leave Canterbury early and check out the town of Ashford. Big mistake. We walked to the station, bought tickets to Ashford, waited 30 minutes for the train, and arrived in Ashford to find that there wasn't anything to see, except a nearby outlet mall. Matters were complicated by the absence of lockers in the train station, so we had nowhere to stow our bags. There was nothing within walking distance of the station and we decided that spending money on a taxi to try and find something to see was not the best idea, especially since we would have to carry our bags around with us. Sooooooo, we bought tickets to go back to Canterbury, where we knew there were storage lockers and things to look at, and went outside to wait for the train (that we just got off of). While we were waiting, two adorable 10-year old boys started chatting us up. They were at the station waiting to see if two girls they met the day before might be coming back to visit them. They asked us lots of questions: where we were from, what we were doing in Ashford, where we were staying, where did we live, etc. They decided that R looked like a Belgian. It was a very entertaining conversation and I was sorry when the train came and we had to leave them.
So, it was a fun weekend - the two train station boys were a definite highlight. We were a little disappointed at how touristy Canterbury was though. Most of the old buildings have been converted into chain stores like the Gap, McDonald's, Burger King or W.H. Smiths. Starbucks is in a building that was originally constructed in 1550 (there's something really wrong with that) and sits in an 800-year old market square! I didn't realize how insulated we are in Belgium, with no chain stores or fast food, so it was a bit shocking to see so much of it again. Next time we go to England, we'll be more prepared for it. But it was really nice to speak English and be able to understand everything that was said. And I was VERY happy to have a Starbucks frappucino!
~K
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