Oct. 7, 2018 (2)

After lunch, I went back to bed and Dave went back out...

While he was gone, I did wake up for awhile and watched a little BBC - and I was fortunate enough to turn to Children's BBC and catch the Swashbuckle (a Cbeebies show aimed at ages 2-7) episode of The Tempest .  It was performed to a live audience, with songs, and the Captain and Shakespeare would come out and give an easly understood explanation of the preceding scene...

 Patrick Robinson as Prospero

Andy Day as Caliban

 Jennie Dale as Captain Captain and 

Steven Kynmans as W. Shakespeare

- it was colorful and cool!  Shakespeare for children! How awesome is that?!?!  So glad I got to see it.

Next up - the walk to the Cathedral...

Oct. 7,2018 (1)

I woke up with a nasty cold, so after breakfast, I went back to bed and Dave went walkabout - I saw most of the things he saw in the following week, so I didn't "miss" anything, I just didn't see it the first day in town!

gate to the Cathedral -
there will be upcoming posts about the Cathedral itself...

This is St. Paul-without-the-walls (meaning outside the wall around the town);
one of Dave's "ancestral" churches

This is Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson (1853-1937) as Faustus...

Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson was an English actor and theater manager. He was considered the finest Hamlet of the Victorian era and one of the finest actors of his time, despite his dislike of the job and his lifelong belief that he was temperamentally unsuited to acting. Wikipedia

He came back to the hotel with flu/cold meds and we went to a Turkish restaurant next door to the hotel - I guess I'm never too sick to eat hummus!

Next up - Dave's afternoon pics...

Oct. 6, 2018

This was travel day - we checked out of the hotel, and while Dave went to the train station (it was a walkable distance if you didn't have luggage) to buy our tickets to Lille (where we would buy our Eurostar tickets to England), I checked out the market that occurs every Saturday in the square -

 If I had had the room in my suitcase, many of these would have come back home with me!

It's truly an eclectic market if you can buy mattresses next to
where you get your roofing material!

 I was thrilled to find a Dia de los Muertos scarf, which DID come home with me!

So we finally take a taxi to the train station, and wait until our train posting appeared (most European airports and train stations only post gate/platform info 30-50 minutes ahead of departure time...

we actually travel light...we each have a
carry-on (which we check on airplanes);
and I have a tote bag and a small duffel, he has his camera
and his electronics bag...it just looks complicated
because of my rollator...

Did I mention we love European/English trains? they are comfortable, and (usually) on time...

When we got to Lille, we had a couple of hours to wait for the Eurostar. Once you get to the platform, you then have to figure out where to stand to be able to board into your car...

The Eurostar is a wonderful experience - in this case, much more convenient than a plane, since we weren't stopping in London, but catching another train to Canterbury...it is a little way from the Channel, so you do get to see some countryside before diving under, and the food was better than the airplane food (bonus!). The entire trip takes about 1.5 hours.

When we got to St. Pancras station, we bought tickets to Canterbury -

Not quite as luxurious as the high-speed trains, but comfortable enough for an hour-long trip!

Finally, it was late in the evening when we caught a taxi to our hotel, the Falstaff (recommended, by the way...central and comfortable, with a great staff)...

Next up...Canterbury...