Breakfast in Canterbury, Lunch by the Sea and Dinner with the Queen

Since I arrived in Germany and will be here for a month, I’m sure most of my posts will be about our travels. I arrived in Amsterdam on Friday and on Saturday we took off on our extended weekend excursion. It’s Fat Tuesday in the States and this past weekend started Carnivale in Europe.

We drove 4-1/2 hours to Calais, France to take the ferry to Dover. Here are a few pictures where we waited to drive the car onto the ferry, and then of the White Cliffs of Dover.

On Sunday morning, we woke early to experience Canterbury before everyone else go there. The center of Canterbury is unique because it was built within the old castle. This is part of the castle.

 

Here are some pictures I took as we strolled down the quiet streets.

This sign was on one of the historic buildings. I thought it was funny.

When we were walking around by the waterway, a man told us he just saw a fox, so we stayed there until the fox came out. I think he enjoyed being on display. Mmmm….breakfast.

Here are more pictures of our walk along the waterway.

This is a picture of the original entrance into the castle. They had a picture of what it looked like with the drawbridge. Then I took a picture from the other side of the English telephone booths.

 

It took me a while to get it, but here’s a picture of a poetry (poet tree). There are pieces of paper with poetry written on it that hung from the tree. Clever.

And here’s where we enjoyed a tour of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Before leaving Canterbury, we stopped into their grocery store to check out what they had, and I couldn’t believe I found some Scottish Haggis. For those of you who don’t know what Haggis is, it’s made out of sheep’s liver, heart and lungs, minced with onion, oatmeal and spices. As tradition has it, it normally is put in the animal’s stomach and simmered for 3 hours.

After our Canterbury fun, we stopped at a little town called Herne Bay, but moved onto another coastal town called Whitstable. I loved this place. It was so cute. Here are a few pictures of our ventures in Whitstable. 

We had lunch at the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company and the oysters were huge and yummy. I ate them too fast to take a picture but here's what it looks like from the inside of the place.

Now it's mid-afternoon and my Love asked if I wanted to head to London. Me being the adventurer, said “sounds good.” We drove to London and walked around, listened to live music and finished there with dinner. Here are a few pictures of our time there.

By this time we were tired, so we headed back to the hotel room for a good night sleep.

Now I’m sick and hope to be better soon.

How are you celebrating Fat Tuesday?

Adventures and Experience,

Bea

Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

It’s funny how quickly life takes a spin and puts you in another direction. This week I’ve been planning things month-by-month as to where and what I’ll be doing. In a way I’m a displaced person, currently living in my mother’s condominium while cleaning it up, boxing things I want of my mom’s, and getting it ready for sale. Staying at my mother’s place has been tough, so I booked a flight to Germany for next week where I’ll be staying for a month.

I will fly out on Thursday and arrive on Friday in Amsterdam and be in three countries in one day; United States, Holland and Germany. My Love will pick me up and we’ll stay at our flat for the night and then on Saturday head to the United Kingdom. We’ll drive (okay, he’ll drive) from Germany to the French Coast (3 countries; Germany, Belgium and France). From there, we will take a ferry across to Dover, U.K. and then drive to Canterbury where we will stay until Monday. We will be in 4 countries within a matter of 6 hours. I am looking forward to getting away and relaxing.

While I’m out there, we will be looking into other flats because the plan is (for now) that I will be moving out to Germany for a year or two, returning for holidays and summer vacation. The flat we have is all right, but we figured it would be nice to have a little more room or a balcony. If we can’t find anything cheap, then we’ll just make do with the flat we have now. Here are pictures I posted before of our flat.

It’s a learning experience living in another country. We didn’t have much out there—we actually lived like college students—but we had the essentials. This way of life was great because we focused on each other, things to do and cheap travel. When I returned to the States last year, I realized how much STUFF I had that wasn’t really needed. But I appreciate the way of life in the U.S. and in Germany.

When I lived in Germany, I made some videos of the places we went to. Here are a few of those videos.

A Glimpse of Germany

 

Many Faces of Spain

 For The Love of Italy

What are your plans for the next month?

Planning and Wandering,

Bea