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Thursday 16th February 2023
Back into Canterbury again and we were meeting up with our nephew as he’s at university in the city. We were hoping he would be able to be a tour guide, but as a student, this was limited to pubs, clubs and kebab shops!!
We met Tom at The Lost Sheep Coffee Shop by the Cathedral – bacon butties and poached eggs on toast went down a treat. Next stop was the Cathedral – slight discount on entry fees with an English Heritage Card (so we saved about £10 in all). Armed with tickets, we could go through the gatehouse and actually see the cathedral albeit with scaffolding around some sections as it’s being restored/repaired/cleaned.
We explored the inside first – it’s huge – lots of memorials to former soldiers who had excelled in battle over the last 300 years. A lot of the former Archbishops of Canterbury had been laid to rest here too. What stained glass they had was stunning but many of the windows were just plain glass.
Like Westminster Abbey and York Minster, it was laid out as a church inside a church so some services could have a more intimate feel without being overshadowed by the size of the church. There was so a fair few small chapels for private prayer around the church. One slight criticism is that there were piles and piles of chairs stored around the edge of the cathedral, blocking some of the plaques and statues around the edge of the church.
You could also go down into the crypt – Jon commented it’s the only crypt he’s been down that doesn’t have any bodies!! From the church, we then wandered around the cloisters.
From the cathedral, we had a little time to kill so we wandered down to St Augustines, a National Trust property in town. However, once we got there, a sign said it was only open at weekends! Oh well! We wandered back into town and decided to grab a drink at The Pound before our Escape Room started.
There were three different escape rooms at “Escape from the Tower“. Magna Carta, Crime & Punishment Lab and The Comms Room. We opted for the Comms Room – set in the actual comms room used in WW2 to protect Canterbury from the German planes.
We spent the entire time in this one room (all the other escape rooms we’ve done have had more than one room) and was really well thought out. A good range of clues that involved you working together. Callum was in his element, especially in the last part of the mission. This was Tom’s first escape room so I think he must have wondered what on earth was going on at times but pleased to say he enjoyed it. We did manage to save Canterbury with 8 minutes to spare (and three clues)!!
Afterwards, we were able to go to the top of the tower to admire the views and see the small museum which told the history of the tower being used as a prison.
Everyone was now feeling hungry so we needed to find somewhere to eat. In the end we opted for Wildwood – an Italian pizza, pasta, grill set in a 16th Century tudor house. Tom had pizza, Callum the prawn & chorizo risotto, Jon a burger and I had a chicken & mushroom bake. All good.
By the time we’d finished, it was dark. We wandered back to the bus station and bid Tom farewell.
No surprises on what happened once we got back to Sibton Park (snooker!).
