BOX 213: Canterbury 2, with Chilham, Rye and Belgium.

I just read a claim that this is one of the most photographed streets in England (not counting London, I imagine). It's Mermaid Street in Rye, a little town on the English Channel that Anne and I visited when we were staying in Canterbury, during our second campus trip abroad. No doubt the street shows up on travel brochures with bluer sky and brighter flowers, but in January we were happy that it wasn't raining at the moment.

Scanning my slides of this 1999 trip I was surprised to find I took so few photos--just one box (a 36 rather than a 20, but still). I'll be glad to show you what I have: a bit of Canterbury, another visit to the village of Chilham, a quick glimpse of London and a dash to Brussels and Antwerp, with more photos of Rye than anyplace else.

As in January 1998 we were 40+ travelers, mainly students but some faculty, including the two leaders (I think Jean Tobin was representing the English Department this time). Anne's mother, Judy, came with us as well. I see that our first day's local guide, introducing us to Canterbury Town and Cathedral, took a more indirect route to the great church than last year;s guide did. Here are some of us walking along the River Stour:

We got a glimpse of the Cathedral towers rising above some row houses, and I was pleased to encounter a sizable holly tree, full of its winter berries.

Here, our guide pauses as we get a bit closer to the Cathedral:

Perhaps that same afternoon we once again took a short train ride to Chilham, this time planning to have lunch as well as drinks at the White Horse Inn. (See BOX 207 for a fuller description of the village and several pics.) I took two shots of our group as they sat waiting for the food, with and without flash; I'll include both just because the 'without' has a little more atmosphere:

Sitting by the window are Juli Leet, Diana Henke and Jean Tobin, looking at Jim Tobin discoursing. I took a separate photo of Jean and Jim, and one of Judy standing beside the enormous fireplace draped with dried hops--a winter custom in Kentish hops country.

This time I was able to get a better shot of the manor house on the other side of the village square, since the gate was open:

On our first London day we made another visit to the Saturday Portobello Street Market (though the market is farther ahead than my photo shows):

Oddly, this is my only picture of London during this trip, though we visited the capital at least twice. Nor do I have much to show of Brussels, which Anne, Judy and I visited via the Eurostar during a couple of free days. (As I explained in BOXES 208=209, we'd discovered that the Continent was easy and quick to reach from Canterbury, thanks to a train connection to Eurostar service to either Paris or Brussels.) Back in 1995 Anne and I had visited her brother Paul and sister-in-law Monique in Brussels, where they were operating their Southwestern-cuisine restaurant, the Thunderbird Café. (See BOX 195.) Now we had the chance to see them again, with Judy. They had moved from their house in suburban Tervuren, to a townhouse in Brussels' Koekelberg district, closer to the restaurant. I think it was one of these houses bordering the Elisabeth Park below the monumental Basilica of the Sacred Heart:

In my previous Brussels post I mostly showed pics of Paul's sensational food; this time I have a couple of family photos: one of Anne and me, one of her with Monique, Paul and Judy:

While in Brussels Anne and I took an afternoon side trip to Antwerp--I think we were scouting it out as a place to visit during our third campus trip abroad, which we hoped would be based in Bruges. The first thing that impressed me about Antwerp was its grand Centraal train station, built around 1900. The interior with its high dome was hard to capture; at least I can show one corner of it, plus an exterior view in the winter afternoon light:

We had a good walk from the station to the city center, as the avenue gave way to a pedestrian district:

By the time we got to Antwerp Cathedral it was dark, though I attempted one picture of its slender spire.

After getting back to Canterbury Anne and I used another free day to take a shorter excursion by train to the town of Rye. An important trading and military port in medieval times, Rye receded in importance as the nearby waters literally receded, leaving it high and dry. It might not look special from this view:

But with its well-preserved buildings the heart of the town had a great deal of character. One of its older structures is the Landgate with its convenient alcoves for pigeons:

St Mary's Church is another important landmark--my hasty photo during a light rain doesn't do it justice:

Even in the drizzly weather the town had its charms, as you see in the photo of Mermaid Street at the top of this post and in the following shots of a guest house and, in the brick building with the steeple, the town hall:

Another landmark is the Tudor-looking Mermaid Inn, once notorious for housing smugglers. I'll include a poorly focused shot as well as one of me in the distance:

We had a late lunch--actually quite a full meal--at the Copper Kettle, a wonderfully cozy restaurant, especially on a chilly January day:

We ordered the "freshly shot partridge" on the day's menu--which was delicious, once it arrived after a very long wait. (Inevitably we joked about how they must have gone out and shot it after we placed our order.) I remember the dessert as well, or rather that it came with "clotted cream," something I'd only heard about: it turned out to have the consistency of a chunk of cold butter but with the taste of sweetened whipped cream.

Standing high above the Channel was a medieval fortification, the Ypres Tower:

And going from epic to quaint, here is a bakery window, where we saw breads shaped like hedgehogs:

We made sure to see the 18th-Century Lamb House, where Henry James lived for some years:

To and from Rye we had to take a local train from Ashford, with its old carriages and stops in little hamlets where schoolkids got on and off. I took this photo of Anne in our compartment on our way back:

It's one of my favorites of her, because of the way her reddish hair contrasts the browns of her scarf and coat and most of the compartment, and the way it reminds me of our drizzly day in Rye and our time at the Copper Kettle.

Another excursion we took from Canterbury--going east to the coast this time--was to Broadstairs, where Charles Dickens had a home. Of that seaside town I have only one photo, taken as we walked from the train station to the beach:

Our whole Canterbury trip was memorable, even though I didn't document most of it except for Rye. In my next post I'll show the trip Anne and I took the following summer to a sunnier location: San Francisco and wine country.