England, Day Two-Canterbury

Woo! Day 2!

This was a busy day seeing as we were fresh from our jetlag and had a day of train travel ahead of us.  On this day, we were heading to Canterbury! Our parents were going to be there for a couple of nights, and my sister and I decided to go with them for the day as this was the "last time we would see them" for the Europe adventure. You'll understand why that is in quotes towards the end of the trip...so stay tuned eager readers.

We left the flat in London early in the morning with our parents and their luggage. Since it was going to be a day trip for my sister and I, we didn't need luggage!! YAY!! We caught the tube to King's Cross where my sister and I stood in line for a very long time to buy our tickets to Canterbury. Our parents had their's on reserve, so they only had to pick them up at a window. It was a good 15 min before the train left when we finally were able to purchase our tickets. Our mom went and bought food for everyone (including me even though I said, "no I don't need anything".) However, she's my mom and she knows me so well, since I was STARVING by the time we got on the train. We played Farkle on the train journey to Canterbury and my mom obviously won. So there's that.

CANTERBURY---

Oh where to begin. CHARMING. Old. CHARMING. It was such a cute town/city, whatever it is called. We dropped off our parents luggage at their adorable B&B and began our wandering around the town. We took a zillion photos of alleyways and old storefronts and history galore. We ended up walking around the old roman wall which then took us to the other side of the town to a tiny cafe that does punting on the little river/stream/canal in the town. Since there was some time before the ride we bought something to drink and waited for our turn. I love England for the reasons (AND MANY MORE):

• Cute cafes and pubs that are teeming with adorableness and quaintness and lovely friendly owners. 
• Little alleyways with flowers and ivy and cobblestone.
• TEA TIME
• The accents everywhere
• Old buildings. And I'm talking OLD.

We boarded the boat and off we went with 2 other couples. Our tour guide was full of information and was also hilarious. We went down under buildings and walkways, to which the guide instructed us to watch our heads and also if we did not like spiders (me) to not look up. I did not. Also I think I prayed while under buildings that no spiders would fall on me head.

A very, very old church.

The little punting river..or canal...I am bad at terminology.

View from the boat.

It was the bluest and sunniest of days and just a slight breeze. The leaves were bright and red, orange, and yellow in color. I could have cried I was bursting with glee. Also some of the other boats we passed had some very very attractive guides and I was like HELLOOOOO, except not.

When the tour was done, we meandered our way back into the main part of town and went into a museum that was closing in 10 minutes. And in England that means 10 minutes. Not 11. So we went through extremely quickly, I just remember a lot of artifacts and shiny things. Then we left and located a small pub off the main drag. It was absolutely fabbbbbbb! Barely anyone in there, and since it was our second pub outing we did not feel quite so out of sorts. We just bellied up to the table and the lady came to us since that was the pubs way of doing things. We ordered a bunch of food, my dad ordered his 2nd steak and ale pie of the trip (we had only been in England 2 days now). My family ordered ciders and I had wine...actually I think my mom also had wine...I can't remember. We were there for a couple of hours and just enjoying time together since this was the end of our travels together. I even convinced my dad to get an instagram and then had to give him tutorials in the pub which was getting louder by the minute and my dad is deaf in one ear...so there was ALOT of pointing. But he now is the owner of an instagram handle. And he never uses it. Good....

Unfortunately, our time had come to catch the train out of Canterbury. Our parents and us walked our way to the train station.. Now if you remember we were going to see our parents again at the end of the trip, but as that was a surprise for my sister's birthday me and my parents had to pretend to be sad. We were like, "See you in America...." except I was giggling on the inside. We waved goodbye and caught the next train back to London.

Annie and I were absolute annoyances on the train, we just couldn't stop laughing. We were delirious from jet lag and from walking EVERYWHERE with our parents. I'm telling you my step count was at like 20,000 for both days with them. I mean later in the trip Annie and I reached 25,000 but still...
Anyways, back to London we went. We had to stop at Tescos once we arrived at our location to buy food and stuff. We fell asleep quickly as the next day would be HARRY POTTER DAY!!