Canterbury Cathedral, Kent

Where is Canterbury? Canterbury is right on the northeast side of Kent in England, which lies on the east side of London. Kent is basically an area where you can see traditional houses and lovely bridges, city gates and too much green around. If you are someone like me, you could easily spend a whole day in this little city Canterbury, but if you generally prefer having a walk around and seeing some of the popular places from the outside, then Canterbury might look a bit small to you and you may finish the Canterbury trip in a few hours.



What to do in Canterbury: Although the city looks quite small, there are actually a few things which could keep you busy more than you can imagine while you are there. I want to start with the Canterbury Cathedral as this was the one which I could call as "impressive" at the end. - (Thank you to my friend Sam's dad Richard from the Corner House, as he's taught me how to pronounce the word cathedral perfectly!)

Founded in 597 AD, being Mother Church of the Anglican Communion, this cathedral is a place where you can see a Romanesque crypt, 12th century quire and some of the oldest and most beautiful stained glass windows in England. The city might be small itself, but the cathedral is a massive masterpiece for sure. I spent about an hour or even more inside, exploring the other parts of the cathedral, examining the walls, windows and the detailed architecture - discovering the history of the cathedral, enjoying its silence and quietness, which you cannot find in any other popular churches at all. - You have to pay £8 for an adult to enter the cathedral.

Royal Museum and Free Library of Canterbury

For those who love arts and archaeology, another place is on the list: Royal Museum and Free Library. The museum is known as Beaney Institute or just The Beaney as well - the central museum, art gallery and library of Canterbury. The building has a great traditional architectural design outside and looks like a completing part of the city somehow. I had never expected so much to see inside, but now I am glad that I entered and gave the museum a chance instead of just looking and passing by.

Loads to see in the museum; unique archaeological pieces from very early ages, reaching from very very far distances; Egypt, Iran, Turkey and further - real dinosaur skeletons, butterflies, bronze age pieces, antique papers written in Hebrew and many more - we were speechless! I would never expect so many precious piece altogether! We could not help ourselves at all, and were almost missing the train we need to take back home while exploring the museum.

Moreover, there you can see the real life paintings that reveal the old Canterbury times, which are painted by the local artists of the city. The country lives of the local people in that times and the gardens, houses, daily routines going on in the city - definitely worth seeing!

Me on the main street of the shopping area

There are more museums and churches that you could go and see, but we preferred spending a few hours on the streets, buying second hand books from charity stores and looking for vintage pieces that we both adore, and having a lovely tea break where we can cover the London tiredness we had the day before.

A sample of the lovely vintage-look stuff

It is impossible for me to put here all the photos I took in Canterbury; the lovely vintage cups, glasses, table clothes, postcards, baby stuff, bags, shoes, dresses and many others, but I liked the pinks, blues, yellows - dots, vintage lines, laces, sweet pictures on the materials... My friend as a wedding planner enjoyed them all a lot - and I suddenly realised my old addiction to vintage was just about to be waken up by all those - so sad that with no chance I could carry any of them back to my home... So we left them all behind, preferred looking for some second-hand books that I will be able to carry in my luggage easily (Not easily actually, more than 8 kilos was only books in my luggage!)

Travel books, history books, language books (I'm afraid I bought a book which teaches Latin - God knows what I will do with it, but just couldn't help myself - I love the Latin language a lot and want to learn it somehow!), cook books, fiction books, crime books, and many many more that I cannot remember of...

While walking around the streets, you may come across with a couple of street musicians - the ones we saw were literally incredible; very talented in music and quite fast while using the instruments - they left everyone speechless on the street, and we stopped to watch them twice!

A tea room in Canterbury

Where to eat - what to eat: For the lunch, I could recommend you the little place in where we ate a muffin and drank tea when we first arrived - it was a lovely place, but I totally forgot its name!

In Canterbury, you might like to try eating the traditional Toasted Teacake that English people prefer eating at tea time - an English Breakfast Tea or Earl Grey could accompany them either.

I personally don't like such tastes like Toasted Teacake or Earl Grey - but if you like trying new things and prefer the local food, then these are exactly your cup of tea!

Later on, when we felt a bit hungry, we went to the Tiny Tim's Tea Room - a lovely place; good food, good service, beautiful decoration, nice people around... Spending an hour in there and eating the delicious (and quite interesting) food with a cup of black tea was all I wanted!

Our little lunch at Tiny Tim's Tea Room

After the LATE lunch, we headed to a small bazaar where you can buy some clothes and accessories (especially earrings, necklaces, rings with special colourful stones - my favourites!)... Quite expensive, but really very good stuff that you may not be able to find somewhere else - If you are willing to pay more than £50 for a ring with a special stone, then it is exactly a good place you may want to visit. - The same pieces, the same prices in my country, so I bought nothing anyway - though I helplessly fell in love with most of them!

Very sad that we had no time for a canal tour with the tiny cruises, and I am not sure even if the tours were available then - because the weather was terrible; windy and snowy later on - colder than ever - and we haven't seen a clue about any of that cruises during our walk around the canal. The view of the canal was beautiful enough to keep us busy taking photos and watching the surroundings before catching our train back to Rye.

The canal in Canterbury

How to get there: by train, from Ashford International

My friend and I basically got on the train from Rye, changed the train in Ashford International, and got on another one heading to Canterbury.

A map of Kent and where Rye, Ashford and Canterbury lie

If you are travelling from London, then you must take the train that directly passes by Ashford International, and change there for the train going to Canterbury as we did. (Or maybe there is a better way of it, but I don't know it!) But I'm sure of that, Ashford International is a station which links you to most of the other destinations...

Please feel free to comment if you have any questions about Canterbury or if you want to share your own ideas, experiences and other things about your journey to Canterbury!