A Canterbury Tale

In Canterbury for a family wedding, I'm sitting in the hairdresser's making small talk.
"I live in a small village nearby. It's nice to get away from all this at the end of the day!" Nodding and smiling, this women has the fate of my hair in her hands after all, I think - all this(!), this chocolate box town is hardly the mean streets.

Canterbury is, however, overrun by tourists - but only the most polite cathedral touring kind. It may in fact be the oldest tourist attraction of all having attracted pilgrims to the shrine of Thomas Becket since before Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales in the 14th Century.

The medieval cathedral is obviously the star of the show, a UNECO World Heritage Site, it is an awe-inspiring structure with some real historical and religious significance. My dad nearly fell over himself laughing when he saw there was a business called Vatican Hair within a stone's throw of the head of the Church of England. The proprietor wasn't so amused by him going in to share the joke. Apparently it was an accident and was only funny the first time someone pointed it out.

What's nice about Canterbury, aside from the picturesque setting, is that it's a student town giving it some all important life and energy. The place is packed full of cafés, bars and restaurants. My recommendation for food would be Trappiste Café with good, Italian-style pizza slices for a student friendly £2 and a hangover cure breakfast menu until 12 daily. I certainly needed that after a whale of time at the wedding. There's also the Chocolate Café at a convenient hop across the road with blue cheese chocolates alongside other creative sweet specials.  My favourite Canterbury pub was The Dolphin on Radigunds St., which mixes the traditional and trendy with good grub and a fabulous beer garden. At The Dolphin, it's always Pimm's O'Clock.


After a great few days in one of the world's first cities, we hop on the high speed train and are in central London after 50 minutes to check out the Queen's Jubilee celebrations.