Day 3: Canterbury and Rouen

Things I learned today:

1. The English monarchy spoke french for hundreds of years

2. The White Cliffs of Dover are truly white

3. You can only wear a backpack for so many days before it starts to chaff your underarms

4. I’m not that light on my feet.

5. Umbrellas really aren’t that proficient at keeping the rain off anything

6. Pink toilet paper really isn’t that attractive in the bathroom

7. Sometimes you just can’t hold your breath through a tunnel

8. There’s graffiti everywhere!

9. The French Countryside is beautiful.

10. Only the English drive on the right side of the road.


More Words

Carriage Way = Road
dosh = bill
motoring = driving
stone = unit of weight

What a day. It’s amazing how much can be accomplished in one day! And today was a pretty relaxed day as far as EF tours go. We started off the day in England with our fantastic breakfast that I have previously described! (Yuck!!) The day was pretty overcast and it looked like it had drizzled over night, but there was no rain falling at that time. We boarded our coaches and drove to Canterbury. I would say it was about an hour and a half drive to get there all of which was pretty nondescript. The kids played cards in the back and the adults were up front taking in the sights.
When we arrived in Canterbury the coaches dropped us off and we walked into town. (This will be important as the story progresses) They dropped us up near the top of canterbury as if they drive into town the walk from the actual Coach parking is actually further then where we were let out.
The Cathedral there is amazing! It’s humongous and extremely ornate. Stain class windows all around and detail work in stone that truly makes you marvel. There is a lot of history behind the Cathedral (of course) but what I found extremely interesting was the extreme measures they went to during WWII to make sure it was not destroyed.
I guess they assigned people every night to the top of the Cathedral to protect it from any fires that might break out due to the German bombing raids. Who knew the biggest threat to a stone structure would be fire! I thought it would be more a direct hit from an actual bomb itself.
We had about 40 minutes or so to roam around the structure and take in what it had to offer before we had to meet outside for the trek back to the coaches. As we were congregating outside the gates England decided to show us its wetter side. Basically, the heavens opened and poured out its blessings! At first it wasn’t too bad, we all rushed to get our wind breakers/raincoats on and our umbrellas out if we had them with us. (I did and was very grateful for it!) But then we had to keep standing around waiting for everyone to join us for our return walk. And the rain just kept getting harder. People with just the wind breakers did not have a hood so they were getting quite wet and the rest of us were just trying to keep the rain off as best we could.
We finally left and started walking back- even though we were still missing one chaperone form the other school. I guess she had gone off to a T-Mobile shop to try and figure out why her phone was not working. Let’s just say that by the time we actually arrived at the coaches, we all looked like drowned rats. Even those with Umbrellas! As they really don’t help much in keeping rain off anything but your head. Which I must say that I was grateful not to have a head full of drenched hair. It was bad enough to have the entire bottom half of your pants wet as well as your backpack you are carrying and parts of your middle where the rain falls off the umbrella and onto you!
Once we got back to the coaches we still had to wait for almost 15-20 minutes before they found the missing chaperone and hauled her back up to the bus. (Although maybe her disappearing act was done on purpose on her part as by the time she made the trek the rain had stopped!) Needless ot say this event put us behind schedule and the guides were very afraid that we would not make our afternoon ferry out of Dover. Especially because once we actually arrived at the docks we still had to make our way through customs.
That was an experience. We all had to exit our coach with our passports and go into a customs check. While we were in the building, a drug dog was taken onto the bus to find whatever drugs we might be trying to smuggle in! Lucky, for us nothing was found! :) And luck continued to be with us and we made our ferry-mostly because it was late arriving!
The ferry across the English Channel was quite large. Much larger then the ferries across the Chesapeake Bay for example! It almost looked and felt like a small cruise ship. It took about an hour and a half to get across the Channel which is about 14 miles wide. So we weren’t moving at a very quick pace! But it was quite choppy out on the water so it was a very rocky ride. I was very glad that none of the cruises I have been on were even close to that rocky!
Upon arriving in France we once again boarded a coach and started driving to our final destination which was to be the city of Rouen. The drive was mostly through what I would call the countryside of France. It was absolutely beautiful, Rolling hills, green trees, fields, and pastures with different types of livestock. Many parts of the drive reminded me of the road to my brothers house in Oregon where you are just surrounded on both sides by trees. All in all the drive to Rouen took a few hours so it let everyone attempt to rest. A hard feat because the chairs must have been fashioned for the french. The chairs just seemed to hit in all the wrong places! It was almost as bad as the plane! Okay, not quite but close! (What's bad is I think this is our coach for the remainder of our time in France-which is not a happy thought!)
When we finally arrived in Rouen it was 8:30 at night. But it seemed more like 5:00, as it was still quite bright outside. (After traveling over the channel we are now 9 hours ahead of Vegas). We stopped at the hotel prior to dinner, and it was an event. Our entire group was given rooms on the 5th floor. So we made our way up to the 5th floor via the tiny elevators (that should have clued us in to what lay in store but it didn’t) and down the hall that indicated the direction our rooms were located. We were assigned room 531. The problem was the hall ended at room 527. There was no 531 to be found. We also had other folks with rooms in the 30’s that were not on the floor either, so we knew they had to be somewhere. Finally I left my stuff and tried the stairwell at the end of the hall. And wouldn’t you know it- Rooms 528 - 535 were up a level. which you would assume was the 6th floor, but this little alcove of rooms couldn't be accessed from the 6th floor. The only way to reach them was to take the stairs. So we got the opportunity to carry our belongings up two flights of stairs.
I am not sure how to explain the rooms without sounding like I am exaggerating the dimensions, but here it goes anyway. The room had two twin size beds (if they were that large) that were about 1 1/2 feet away from each other. The one closest to the door was right up against the wall the other was about 4 feet from the far wall. There was a small counter on the other side of the 2nd bed you could use with the mirror on the wall. The bathroom was on the right side as you passed the 2nd bed. It might have been 5 feet by 3 feet. There was a small shower on the right with a sink right next door and then the toilet. The shower did not even have it’s own faucet. You used the faucet on the sink to control the water flow in the shower! Once we added our suitcases to the room, there was hardly any room left to maneuver. There is also no air conditioning, so I hope its cool enough outside to keep us cool in here with the window open. Oh well, its only for one night. I am sure we will survive!
We had dinner at a little restaurant that claimed to be Chilean food, but they served us pasta so that was interesting, Everyone also found the dessert amusing as it was basically fruit cocktail from a can with bananas and some whipped cream. Perhaps it wasn’t from a can but it sure did taste like it was!
After dinner we spent about an hour touring the city of Rouen by foot. They have an amazing Cathedral there too. It was a very Gothic style of architecture compared to the Canterbury Cathedral we toured this morning. It was at this Cathedral that Joan of Arc was tried and sentenced to death at. We also went to the site of the old market where she was burned at the stake. There is now a church built near the spot and a rose garden where the cross would have been. We also saw the Seine river-which wasn’t as big as I thought it would be. They also pronounce it different than i thought, it is just the “sin” river. (According to our guides the french add a lot of vowels to their words that they actually don’t use! ) The rest of the architecture was not what I expected, it looked a lot more like somethign from greenland or the netherlands-it seemed very cottage like. Which I did not picture as a part of France.
So as you can see we really didn’t do all that much today, but it still ends up being a very long day. It is almost 1 am and we have to up in time for breakfast at 7:30 so I better get some rest. Our guides so it is going to be a late night tomorrow. I can’t imagine how late it will be as it felt like a late night this evening to me! :)
Oh, and I bought something that my Mom and sister are going to be very jealous over! But there was only one left and I don’ t think I would have been able to transport 3 of them home anyway without leaving all my clothes behind and just using my suitcase for transport purposes!