Bedford

Today we travelled north to Bedford, about an hour north of London by train. I don't think Bedford would be on the normal tourist trail but Eric had been here so that is why we came. We visited the Saint Paul's church and then walked along the River Ouse and took photos from where Eric had. It was lovely down by the river. A visit to the local museum and a chat with the staff there helped clarify some questions, so a successful day out.

Night at the Theatre with Nicky

We went to see a play last night in the West End and organised to meet my niece Nicky, who has been in London now for nearly three years. The play was "The Play That Goes Wrong" it was a real comedy of errors and lots of fun, the three of us really enjoyed it and it was lovely to catch up with Nicky.

Sunny London

We have been blessed with wonderful weather, beautiful clear skies and about 20 degrees. We started our day with a walk down Brick Lane and checked out the Spitafields Church and nearby markets. This is the east end of London and was barely touched during the Blitz of WW2. We hired bikes and rode down across London Bridge and spent a bit of time wandering along The Southbank then across to St Pauls and down to Traflgar Square. We checked out the National Gallery which in itself is a beautiful building. Seems amazing that you can walk in for free and see all the master painters room after room!

Tower of London

Today we caught the train up to London, we found our little apartment just off Brick Lane and settled in. Took us a while to get our bearings but we have now worked out the direction to the Thames and to London. We made our way to the Tower of London and enjoyed the tour with the Beefeater and wandering around the whole complex. Got some good views of the Tower Bridge.

Canterbury Cathedral and Evensong

We went to Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral it was very atmospheric, listening to the choir with the young choirboys as well as the more mature singers. There was also a piece played by the organ that went for about 10 minutes at the end which was lovely to hear in the Cathedral, afterwards we wandered through the grounds and then called into The Jolly Sailor for a lime and soda and a coffee which came to the grand total of £2.50!

River Cruise

We enjoyed a 45 minute historic tour of Canterbury on a punt along the River Stour. It was just lovely and the weather was perfect. 

We then had a quick look in a little museum and found a stuffed macaw just like Ziggy - Amy says he could be Ziggy's great great great grandfather!

Canterbury Castle and Old City Wall

We walked through the Westgate Gardens to the old Norman Canterbury Castle then along the old city wall and up to another high point with lovel views.

Canterbury

I just loved Canterbury would love to come back here and spend more time. We drove into town and used the Park and Ride system. We parked in a car park all day for 3 pounds and the buses ran every 8 minutes and took you into the city centre in about 10 minutes, took the hassle out of working out where to go!

We just took a wander around the city had no trouble finding the Canterbury Cathedral. We walked around half of the old city, went up Westgate Tower which is the only remaining gates along the old wall of the original 7 gates. Lots of history  and lovely views.

Seven Sisters Country Park

We picked up our little blue hire car for the next two days to get to Canterbury. Our first stop was the Seven Sisters Country Park near Seaford. We did a lovely walk down to the coastguard cottages and we got a magnificent view of the lovely white cliffs. Evidently these cliffs are filmed when the White Cliffs of Dover are needed as they are more brown and grey nowadays. We loved this area. We had arranged to meet Bill's cousin Christine Davis and her husband Geoff here who were on holidays from New Zealand. They had seen our posts on Facebook and realised how close we were so sent a message and so we managed to cross paths. Bill had seen Christine about 4 years ago at his aunt's 90 th birthday and before that about 20 years ago, we spent a lovely few hours together. 

Then we headed to our B&B just out of Canterbury. It was an interesting drive along mainish type roads and then little curvy skinny roads. Traffic can be a bit crazy in the major towns but we made it to our very nice B&B at Oakside Lodge.

Biking in Brighton

We hired bikes and had a lovely morning riding along the seafront, past some white cliffs to a quaint little village where Rudyard Kipling lived for a while, we then headed back the other direction to Hove and found the lovely coloured bathing sheds a fun day out by the seaside!