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Trip Day 9 - Tuesday, February 25th - Croydon -> Margate -> Canterbury
This whole trip originated around one thing only - Nina Conti at The Marlowe in Canterbury on February 26th. Nina Conti is a comedian ventriloquist. I planned the week before and the week after around that event to do some other stuff.
Today, I changed my hotel bookings. In order to attend the pinball tournament in Croydon, I will return there on Thursday, so changed my Canterbury stay to Tuesday and Wednesday only. I kept my room in Croydon and left some stuff there including my Mounjaro (weight loss drug like Ozempic), which was good, because the Canterbury Hampton/Hilton does not have a fridge.
I drove to Margate first to try to get some pics recreating scenes in Killing Eve, but most things were closed and it was pretty abandoned because it's a seaside town and it was cold and rainy.
I'm getting better at driving. I only ran over the left curb twice today (smaller curbs than we have). Yesterday, it was 4 times. Also, I'm getting the hang of the roundabouts.
When I got to Canterbury, I dropped my laundry off to get it cleaned. A great bargain at about $20 compared to $7 a shirt and $4 for underwear at the hotel. If you come to Britain, make sure to find a laundrette.
After parking and checking in, I walked to the cathedral then to the laundrette. 9k steps today which is about my current average. Not doing anything else today other than relaxing.
In case you're interested, this was my least favorite hotel room. No fridge, the place for my laptop and keyboard was very narrow, and the bathroom had little shelf space. On the other hand, the staff was great, friendly and very accommodating (they changed my reservation from Wed-Sat to Tue-Thu with no squabbles).
Trip Day 10 - Wednesday, February 26th - Canterbury <-> Dover
I went to the English School Vienna in Austria for several years. During my English education, I heard a lot about the cliffs of Dover, so I wanted to go see them. I also went to Dover Castle which just happened to be there.
Dover was just about a 30 minute drive from Canterbury. I managed to go through one red light but I only hit 1 curb. The light was on a highway where you can go 70 mph and there was no way I could stop on yellow. It'll be interesting to see how many tickets I get (so far, as of March 9th, none).
I returned to Canterbury and went to the Canterbury Roman Museum. The Germans had bombed Canterbury in 1942 and by doing so, destroyed houses that had been above Roman ruins. These were uncovered and a new building built on top of them. Thank you Germans for bombing!
Afterwards, I went to "The Shakespeare" and had a smashburger (the rage here it seems) and Sticky Toffee Pudding. It was not as good as what I had on the food tour at the Mug House.
Oh, I found out more about the Best Dog Pub. It is actually a pub catering to dogs with a dog menu. From ChatGPT - The Thomas Becket pub in Canterbury has truly embraced being dog-friendly. They've gone beyond just allowing dogs; they've created a special menu just for them. This includes dishes like 'roast dinners' made of chicken, sweet potato, and peas, as well as 'Paw Star Martinis'.
Went to the Marlowe to see my main point of this trip. Sarah Kendall opened for her and then Nina brought people to the stage and put masks on them. At one point, she had 5 folks on stage, doing a different voice for each (and American and Scottish accents). It was a very good show but I had seen bits and pieces on Instagram and it was about the same, so probably more underwhelming, yet delightful.
Was it worth scheduling this trip? Well, this trip was great in itself. It was not the highlight of the trip. You'll have to go to the summary page to find out what was though. A cliffhanger - see what I did there?
