It’s another fine, sunny day and we are travelling out of Broadstairs today.

The York Gate

We followed our usual path up the hill from our apartment, passing under the York Gate as the arch is called.

Costa

We went to Costa in Albion Street for our usual coffee and croissants.

Aboard the 9

In Queens Street we caught a (late) number 9 bus that took us on the long (90-minute) ride to Canterbury.

After what seemed a long journey, on bad and often narrow roads, we reached Canterbury. I photographed the first two things I saw. The first is a sculpture by Kenny Hunter (author of that other favourite of mine, I Goat, in Spitalfields) and the second is St George’s clock tower.

Caffè Nero-

We made straight for Caffè Nero where we ordered these drinks:

Guessing which is for whom is left as an exercise for the reader 🙂

Street Market

The next task was to find lunch. We went into Marks & Spencer and bought food and drink. Now we needed to find a bench in the shade.

Arcade

This proved more difficult than expected as Canterbury seems to be a bench-unfriendly town.

War Memorial

Crossing the Stour

We crossed the River Stour and found a walled garden.

Walled garden

On one side was the river, with a bridge and…

A wall to sit on

…a low wall that we could sit on to eat our lunch (remembering not to lean back!).

At the Marlowe
Photo by Tigger

There were deck chairs in the shade in front of Marlowe Theatre and so we sat there for a while.

Bulkhead
Rick Kirby

This is one of the artworks outside the theatre.

Distance view of the Cathedral

This is the nearest we came to the Cathedral on this trip. Canterbury is of course the seat of the Archbishop of the Church of England.

Sun Hotel

This is the Sun Hotel, built 1503, and made famous by Charles Dickens (allegedly). Not that the people of Kent are at all obsessed with Dickens, of course.

Canterbury street

One of the many picturesque streets that we passed through. Some are more picturesque than others.

Back in Nero

We had picked out the 15:35 bus back to Broadstairs. This left us time for a last quick visit to Caffè Nero.

Aboard the 9

The bus was on time (is this a record?) and we climbed to the upper deck where the views are better.

Broadstairs High Street

The journey was uneventful with countryside and villages to observe from the window. The bus dropped us back in Queens Street from where we walked down the High Street.

The Prince Albert

We passed the decorative Prince Albert pub, dated 1911.

The Promenade

We walked along the Promenade which was quite busy – not surprisingly on such a summery day.

The beach

The beach wasn’t all that crowded but probably day-trippers have already started for home.

We opened the windows

We returned home and opened the windows onto the street to let in the sunshine and sea air. We have, of course, made tea.

Later, we will see whether we have enough food on hand to make our evening meal or whether we need to supplement our stock with a visit to the Co-op. For now we are content to relax and watch the world go by.