My Adventures in the UK - DAY 7 - by Anne Shier

(this narrative began from when I first landed in London on September 3, 2016)

Wednesday September 7, 2016:

Today, we left London at around 8:15 am and headed for Canterbury, England.  At about 10:00 am, we arrived in the tiny village of Canterbury.  It is a mixture of very old architecture, like the Canterbury Cathedral, and stores of all kinds selling everything from electronics to everyday things.  It is a tourist heaven here.  We spent about two and a half hours in Canterbury and I was on my own most of the time.  After refreshing myself in the ladies toilet, which is how the English like to refer to the bathroom or washroom, and touring through the Canterbury Cathedral, I proceeded to look for an open cell phone store. 

I’ve been trying to obtain a SIM card that will allow me to connect to any available network, but it’s been difficult, so I thought I’d ask this nice young chap in his “Phonik” electronics store if he could help me.  He sold me another SIM card for only one pound Sterling, but we still couldn’t find an available network to which my phone could connect.  As a result, I was ready to give up on my cell phone altogether.

Instead of wallowing in my misery, I decided to get some lunch since I hadn’t eaten much of a breakfast.  After a lunch of a ham and cheese sandwich, a cup of fruit, and a hot chocolate, I found yet another electronics store called “Three” that deals with cell phone problems, but the same thing happened – no connection.  I was totally and completely frustrated by now at my lack of progress.  Surely this “problem” could be solved somehow!

By this time, I had to go meet my Globus tour group beside our bus.  We were planning to leave at 12:15 pm.  We then continued on our way to Brighton, a seaside resort, passing through some really spectacular countryside.  I was very tired for some reason and dozed off for the second time that day on the bus.

Finally, we arrived in Brighton, although we should have arrived earlier due to being caught in heavy traffic, in time to see the Royal Pavilion, which used to be Queen Victoria’s summer home till about 1863.  Then, the town of Brighton purchased it and tried to re-furbish it, with mixed success.  It is a very large home, which it needed to be since she’d born nine children with her husband, Prince Albert – it is also very luxurious.  I went through it (without the audio aid, I might add) and ended up in the tearoom where I ordered a glass of cold apple juice and a slice of Victoria’s angel food cake.

When the tour group left Brighton, we drove to our Hilton hotel in Avisford Park, which was in Arundel, England.  It was a very quaint and comfy hotel and my room was very nice.  After settling in, we had a lovely dinner downstairs in the dining room; I had a hot bath, set out my clothes for tomorrow morning, and did some journal writing (longhand).  Eventually, it was time to “hit the hay”!  I was really bushed.  Tomorrow, we leave at 8:30 am for Stonehenge and then on to our Holiday Inn Express hotel in Plymouth.  We are here for a day and a half.

I signed up for eight excursions out of a possible thirteen.  I think that’s enough.  They are somewhat costly, but some of them include dinner and a couple of them even include a cruise.  However, I picked the ones I thought I’d enjoy the most.  Tonight, we are going to Dartmouth Moor and will hear some storytelling from a guide there, eat some dinner and have a drink.  This is the first of our excursions.  Tomorrow night, we are going on a cruise, but this one is not part of an excursion – it’s included with our tour package.  I have a record of the excursions I’ve signed up for and will have to pay for them tomorrow morning – it might cost me two hundred pounds Sterling, but I don’t care – I just want to have fun and see as much of British life as possible.

copyright 2016 - Anne Shier