Happy Canada day! We changed the page on our calendar this morning. Starting our second year here. There were Canada Day celebrations at Trafalgar Square in central London. These were put on by the Canadian Consulate, which is right beside the Square. There was a concert with the likes of Montreal’s Sam Roberts. Oddly, though, this all happened on Friday, the 29th.
We have been laying low the last little while. After last month’s trip to Italy we have been hanging around London, aside from some day trips around the area. We had yet another visitor to London in June. Our friend Peter, who is working his way around the world stayed over for a few days. Brave man, camping on our floor, but he claims it wasn’t too bad.
When I think that Jo and I travel, we pale in comparison to Peter and his wife Tennille. They have been travelling through Africa, the Middle East and Europe. They have been out on the road for seven months now. They stayed anywhere from five star hotels in Egypt to camping out while on safari to hostels in Europe. The photos on their blog are breathtaking.
The three of us went to Rochester, which has a castle and a cathedral. The cathedral is the second oldest in England. It is the midpoint between London and Canterbury. It was founded by the Romans in the first century AD. The foundations of the wall around the church yard remain from Roman construction.
We also travelled to the seaside at Dover. The attraction at Dover is the white cliffs and the castle. We explored the castle which dates back to the early 1200’s. It was an ancient hill fort for Celtic tribes before the Romans used it as a shipping port. We also had a tour of the tunnels in the cliffs. These were a wartime command centre and were only recently opened to the public.
Dover, the town, is somewhat less interesting. Or should I say, interesting for a different reason. I reckon that the busiest man in town is the one-eyed tattoo artist. Yikes, Dover is scaly. When fine dining is considered Subway, you are in Dover.
When we first said we were moving to London, everyone said that we would have wet gray summers to contrast the wet, gray winters. Well last year was none of that. The summer was hot. Hot like a Toronto summer. Well, this summer has delivered on the UK promise of dull weather. I haven’t had to water the garden for what seems like weeks now. We’ve had two kinds of weather; rainy and very rainy. Jo and I have been caught out in the rain at least three times in the last month. Wait – four, she just came in from the laundry cursing the rain.
There have been two instances of car bombings this week. One was attempted here in London and the other was in Glasgow. To allay your fears, Jo and I weren’t at the Tiger Tiger night club, so there was little danger from the car bomb that was found in London. As for the one in Glasgow, the terrorists were apprehended by onlookers. I don’t know what you know about Glaswegians, but I’ll bet they were wishing to be back in the fire. Sounds like disorganized crime to me.
