The last week in March - the nice sunny one! - we went off to the Canterbury Camping & caravanning club site with our friends Lorna & Mike. They are the proud owners of a new caravan and wanted to try it out. We also had a few bits and pieces to sort out..we have bought the windblocker shades for our Fiamma wind-out awning and I needed to get out my needle and thread to stitch some press stud ends on. All of that was fine so the next day we thought we would have an expedition....bus in to Canterbury, change on to another bus, top deck of course in order to see the countryside, off to Herne Bay. We alighted there and had a walk through the town and along the sea front. Although the weather was lovely everywhere was still quite shut up from the winter and it all seemed a bit deserted. So we hopped back on the bus again and went along to Whitstable. As there had been a accident the road was closed through the town and we were tossed off the bus outside a market. Needless to say we had a mosey around there first before wandering in to the town. We bumped in to some people we know from our dance club who gave us some advice on eating places and ended up in The Tudor Tearooms for some lunch. It was very nice but somewhat packed, obviously quite popular but certainly one we would recommend. After lunch Lorna & Mike decided to go straight back to the camp site, but Brian and I carried on walking along the sea-front and then back past all the little shops in the High Street. Eventually getting the bus back to Canterbury and changing over to our bus to take us back up the hill to the camp-site. Getting to bus-pass age has it's advantages!
On another day we walked down in to Canterbury town, it takes about 20 minutes downhill all the way. Coming back is a different kettle of fish, we usuually get the bus! Every 20 minutes and takes about 5 minutes compared to the 35 it would take us puffing an blowing all the way. We did some shopping, bought some fudge and sat on a bench by the river watching the ducks being amorous.
It was our anniversary whilst we were there, so Lorna offered to cook for us - a lovely chicken in wine meal with plenty of the red & white stuff to go with it!
As we had a bit of a problem with our campervan stalling every time we stopped, we opted to stay until the Sunday and then left at 8.00am in the hopes that it would be quieter on the roads and we would not have to stop so many times going through Canterbury. We got home safely albeit a bit hiccupy and since then the van has been back to the Fiat garage to be sorted. So we are hoping that all will be well for our trip to Holland and Germany in May.
