This week we had a minibreak during the half-term week exploring briefly the historic Kent. I call it historic for two reasons. First of all Canterbury had one of the first cathedrals in England with St Augustine as its first bishop. In addition Canterbury has plenty of other historical and archaeological sites to visit. It is one of the only cities in England that still has most of its city walls in place. It also has a Roman museum with the story of Roman Canterbury to tell with in situ mosaics. The second reason to call Kent historic is that Archaeologist Husband lived his childhood in Thanet and this trip included a round trip of his old homes and schools.
To be honest, in Canterbury we adults would have given the World Heritage site that is the Canterbury cathedral a miss. One look at the ticket prices would tell to anyone why this may have been the case. However, Number One Son wanted to see the building from inside so we could not really give this educational opportunity a miss. Not that he lasted that long: after 10 minutes he had got enough and had to be cajoled to let Mummy to see more of the older northern side. In this way we probably lasted 5 minutes longer than otherwise had.
We stayed in Canterbury and made day or evening trips to Thanet, the historic island on the northeastern coast of Kent. However, it is impossible nowadays to see it as an island with straits diminished to underground brooks or narrow streams. I am not sure how impressed Number One Son was about the trip as a whole. It included a lot of sitting while Archaeologist Husband and his long-time-no-see school friends or colleagues discussed. We stepped out and in of the car in order to take a few photographs outside houses in suburbia. We looked for a long time for a tomb. But he was a good sport. Thus, it was sad that Dreamland in Margate was not open since the Leicestershire half-term was a week early. His enthusiasm did not stretch to Turner Contemporary. Luckily, the local beaches were a big hit, even it was really windy and rather chilly.
