Entered on 2001-11-19 at 8:40 a.m..
Canterbury with Becca and Irwin
Last weekend, as most of you know Becca and I met up with Irwin and headed down to Canterbury. Becca arrived on Thursday night, and hung out around cranfield for a day. I think she has seen pretty much everything that there was to see in the few hours that she spent here. Friday night we headed into London to meet up with Irwin the next day. Here is a picture of Becca fully loaded and ready to take on the train for London.
Becca Comando Style
We found the hotel with little trouble, and settled into a nice night of TV watching. Both of us have been starved for passive entertainment. Luckily for us a year old Friends episode was on, and neither of us have watched the show for years. It was one of those compilation shows where they just sum up the shows last season, to string out the time until the next big event.
Irwin managed to find us the next morning with no aparent problems. He wandered into the restaurant and mumbled, "Coffee, I need some coffee." As you can tell all was well with him. The three of us picked up just where we had left off. The best illustration of this, is the picture below.
Becca and Irwin on the train to Canterbury.
We arrived in Canterbury early Saturday afternoon, and walked the 5 minutes to our Bed and Breakfast. We were up on the 3rd floor attic room. It was really nice, and the beds were extemely comfortable. The B&B was run by a couple from South Africa who are relatively new to the trade. They kept telling us things, and then contradicting themselves later. It was rather funny. After about a half an hour learning how to work the lock, we set out to buy Harry Potter tickets and to take a tour around the city wall. We had borrowed a written guided tour around the wall. Unfortunately we decided to walk clockwise around the wall, and the guide went in counter-clockwise order. This made following the directions between points of interest rather difficult. This led to several back tracking expeditions. Along the way we passed a playground. Becca and Irwin tested the swings.
Becca and Irwin swinging as we walk around the walled city.
After we finished our walk, we wandered up and down the central streets of Canterbury. Canterbury was having its grand-illumination on Saturday evening, so there were tons of people. After looking in to numerous shops, and buying nothing, we decided to go back to the B&B so that Irwin could take a nap. Becca and I entertained ourselves by watching Shreck on Irwin's computer.
Central Canterbury looking towards the Cathedral.
We then went to dinner and to Harry Potter. I think the three of us were just as excited as the kids in the theater. I have to say I really enjoyed the film, but that I would not recomend it if you have not read the book. The movie skipped alot of background stuff and character development that you will only get in the books.
After the movie, we were all ready for bed. We crashed as soon as our heads hit the pillow. Irwin was so tired he didn't even snore. We were all up the next morning in time for breakfast, and even made the 9:30 service at the cathedral's crypt. It was a service for the school attached to the cathedral. After the service we walked through parts of the cathedral, but had to come back later to look at the more central parts.
To kill time we went over to the Abby of St. Augistine. It was a great pile of rocks. We all got head sets and got our own personal tour of the rocks. Becca and I were perfectly content, and Irwin was rather amused that Becca and I were so happy looking at rock piles.
By about 3 that afternoon, we were ready to leave and we walked very swiftly to the Western Canterbury rail station, which was on the opposite side of the town then the one we had come in on (Eastern Canterbury). The train was very neat because there was a door between each set of seats, about 10 doors per car, instead of the 2-3 doors per car, on standard trains. The train ride was rather long, and tiring because we watched the sky turn pitch black, which always makes you sleepy.
We parted at on the Tube as I went to catch a train back to Cranfield, and Becca and Irwin continued on to their hotel in London. I managed to catch the last bus home from Milton Keynes on a Sunday night at 5 til 8 in the evening.