Canterbury Tales

On Wednesday April 14th my parents and I went on a day trip to Canterbury; I had heard such wonderful things about the little town and had wanted to go for a long time.  The train station in Canterbury is literally a five minute walk into the town centre which is decorated with shops, old and new, pubs, restaurants, you name it.  To get there, you pass under the Westgate city wall, a medieval gatehouse built in the late 1300s which acted as the city jails for hundreds of years. 

The journey down the block to the town centre was like something out of a fairy tale; some of the older buildings are just so adorable.  The library, for example, set on top of the cobblestone streets that stretch for miles, reminded me of the town in Beauty and the Beast - I was waiting for Belle to pop her head out of the window and start singing. 

We stopped for lunch at a pub, and two-hours later we emerged, full, but annoyed that our waitress forgot to put our order in TWICE.  We waited 50 minutes for our appetizers and then another 25 for our main meal.  I thought my dad was going to punch somebody.  The food, though, was very good (thank goodness, because if it had been crap my dad may have very well punched somebody).

After our excessively long lunch we made our way to the Canterbury Cathedral, the main tourist attraction in the town, about half-way up the street.  The cathedral is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England.  It is absolutely magnificent.  The church is enormous and  absolutely stunning to look at, both inside and out.  The cloister at the back of the church, as well as the remains of the 12th century infirmary, only make the cathedral that much more spectacular.  After the cathedral we wandered around the town for an hour or so and then decided to make our way back home  (they were offering river boat cruises which I'm sure would have been really nice and a lot of fun had it not been really cold, which was a shame).  My parents and I were really glad, though, that we made the trip to Canterbury; the town truly is adorable and the cathedral is a must-see for anybody who lives even remotely close to Canterbury.