Having visited one historic city in August Heather and I headed for another for an extended weekend, heading for the Christmas markets of Canterbury.

Friday

Having skived off work (well, taken holiday) we headed down on Friday, arriving into Canterbury East station and heading down the road. The city from this end welcomes you with the imposing Westgate, which I’m told is the largest remaining city gate in England. When we arrived there were all sorts of roadworks around it, so I’m not sure if traffic will still pass through it.

We headed past the interesting buildings and shops, and a bit of the market we were there to visit, before finding our way to the extremely warm Three Tuns where we rested with a drink. It really was insanely warm in the bar though (even having shed all the layers) so we left it behind, finding the White Hart a bit down the road and round the corner. That was a lot more comfortable before we headed off, along the ancient walls and then through the rather more modern ring of underpasses at a ring-road roundabout, to the hotel.

Having checked in we headed out around the Christmas markets, spread out around the main shopping streets and in the precinct outside the cathedral. We enjoyed the little stores and festive atmosphere (and Heather got to ride a carousel), before finding a rest in the Old Buttermarket near the cathedral. Unfortunately their kitchen was closed, leaving us hunting around for dinner. We quite fancied the menu at The Foundry, but on getting there we discovered there kitchen was also closed due to a large group!

That left us wandering round the streets until we eventually settled on Marlowe’s. The food was quite nice, though the service did leave us feeling like they were trying to rush us through somewhat. The main issue though was that they’d went a little overboard on the Christmas decorations. Like having dinner in Santa’s grotto!

On the way back to the hotel the Two Sawyers offered slightly calmer and relaxing accommodation for a nightcap before bed.

Saturday

Saturday saw us revisiting the markets with a bit more time but, as well as shopping, we did manage to find our way to the lovely Thomas Tallis, which had a friendly man instead of a bar. There we hid from the worst of the rain, before heading back out. Back out meant we made the mistake of heading into The Crooked House, which these days is a second hand bookshop (how could we resist!) That meant we were laden with books that I had to return to the hotel before we headed out our slightly separate ways. Heather went to do more shopping while I returned to the slightly cooler Three Tuns to watch the football (and actually enjoyed it for once). It also provided food.

Afterwards we got at least got a drink in the Foundry before another visit to the Two Sawyers and bed.

Sunday

With only a half day left we deposited bags in the hotel’s care and headed out to yet more shops, though we were really killing time until lunch at the wonderfully named Canterbury Tails cat cafe, which is friendly and cosy and has lots of lovely cats (and some of the worst coffee I’ve tasted). Has to be said though, I don’t think any cat cafe will ever live up to the much missed Mog on the Tyne

We had another stop off in The Old Buttermarket (with the unofficial job of directing people to the toilets) before collecting the bags and heading to a different railway station in Canterbury West to get home. A lovely little break.