Canterbury

If London becomes too much, I can highly recommend traveling to Canterbury. This small town is located in the heart of Kent and can be reached by train from London in about an hour and a half.

So my cousin and I decided to take a closer look at the town. Directly from London Kings Cross to Canterbury. We wanted to enjoy a cozy autumn weekend with a place to stay in a hostel and a few plans for Canterbury and its surroundings.

On Saturday, we took the train to the next village, Chilham. Our plan: to explore the village and take a little hike from Chilham to Chartham and then back to Canterbury.

Chilham is a very small village with what feels like five streets, but it does have a castle and a small village church.

We then continued towards Chartham through the most beautiful autumn scenery, even with sunshine. What could be more beautiful than flowers, sun, blue skies, and colorful leaves?

And did you know that there is wine in Kent? I've never heard of wine being grown anywhere in England. I was really surprised when we discovered vineyards.

After our little hike, we took the train back to Canterbury from Chartham, where we explored the city a bit while it was still light and then went to Evensong at the cathedral in the late afternoon.

I don’t often attend Evensongs, as I usually sing in the church service or even Evensong on Sundays, so it was nice to listen to another choir for a change.

The cathedral itself is a very beautiful building. Very tall and bright, despite some colorful windows. Unfortunately, we couldn't take a closer look at the church as you usually have to pay an entrance fee otherwise.

The next day, the less pleasant autumn weather reached us, misty and foggy with varying degrees of drizzle. Our plan: after checking out, to walk with our luggage to the city wall.

When we arrived, we were quite soaked. Persistent drizzle can be annoying too. We actually wanted to find the castle ruins, but we decided against it due to the weather. Well, then we found something warm to occupy ourselves with. We wandered through a few shops and then made ourselves comfortable in the tourist information center, which also serves as a museum and library.

This way, we had plenty of time to send postcards, warm up, dry off, and look at the exhibition.

So if anyone wants to escape the city or take a trip through various places in the UK, I can highly recommend Canterbury.
However, I would probably prefer to make a day trip, but if you have plans to see the nearby areas and stroll a bit in the countryside, then a whole weekend is just lovely.