Rochester, Canterbury, Ramsgate, Broadstairs

Kids are off two weeks for Easter break. Nice little rest. We decided that with dads travel schedule for work, we would just stick close to home. We headed off on Saturday morning with a first stop in Rochester. Excellent castle that dates to the 15th century. Really cool cathedral and a lot of Dicken's history is abound in the little town. From there we headed off to Canterbury. The cathedral is the highlight of the visit to this town and was exceptional in size and splendor. With the initial building dating from 1070, the history is impressive. I could wax on poetically about the history of the Anglican church, which is centered here. We could talk about the murder of Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury by knights of Edward II. It is even spectacular to see the tomb of Edward, the black prince. But why go there, the kids favorite part of the trip was the maze in the park. This was the highlight. The shot to the left is taken from the 13th and 14th century medieval wall that is built on the original roman wall. That was actually quite a site, but the kids didn't notice.

From there, we headed to the coast for a port city called Ramsgate. Our neighbors lived there when they were first together. What was really cool was we had this great hotel that was right on a cliff overlooking the sea (tower on the right). This was mostly a sleeping stop as we headed from here to Broadstairs where we enjoyed the beach and the walks along the cliffs.

One of the coolest sites in this area is the Richborough Roman Fort. This was an amazing site as it is attached to the beginning of the Roman rule of Britain. Dating back to AD43, the site was settled and grew and at one time, there was a great archway that was the beginning of a road that ran from here through London and then beyond. Parts of that road still exist today (with good ole concrete and asphalt on top). This is where I must interject that we decided to turn this part of the trip into a spa adventure. Vivian works hard taking care of the kids and the house and she is the planning machine that makes all these trips happen. When we got to the fort, we decided to take advantage of the spa facilities. The shot on the right is of Vivian and MJ in the spa. Vivian claims it doesn't match up to some of her other spa days but when you think about the history, it had to be relaxing for her. For the record, she didn't think it was funny when I mentioned this to her as I took the picture.