Europe 2013 Day 8 - Canterbury & Back to London

Busy day today!  Started the day with a home cooked English breakfast.  Yum.  I like foods.  Uncle Andy, Toby, and I journeyed to Canterbury to meet my other cousin Alex.  He is an architecture student there.

One of the first places we headed to was the cathedral.  This was had a similar feel as York Minster.  Actually, the town had city walls just like York.  I enjoyed Canterbury Cathedral a lot, as Alex was able to tell us information on the architecture and build.  This cathedral had various archways, some gothic more narrow and triangular, and some rounded Roman arches.  There was a beautiful center area that looked like a scene where Harry Potter was filmed, during the Triwizard tournament and Harry seeks out Cedric in a courtyard.  

Courtyard at Canterbury Cathedral

After admiring so much of the cathedral, we went to Starbucks and people watched for a long while.  Yes, I know I paid more to have a frappachino here...

We picked up my Aunt Sue and headed back to London.  We had dinner reservations in East London, but headed up earlier to drive around.  It was nice visiting previously seen places, as this was from another perspective. 

We drove around London, and ended up in South Bank to get a quick bite to eat from their food booths.  Yum again.

Weee bikes at Hyde Park!

We headed to Hyde Park and rented bikes!  Very fun just riding around.  Although, it had been probably six years since I had last rode a bike, so I was wobbly and not confident in the beginning.  Being cheap, we found a way to cheat the system, and managed to only pay £2 each, as long as we checked in the bikes every half hour.  Although this was the third or fourth time I had visited Hyde Park, it was a very different experience.  The first couple times I had walked through almost in a rush.  Today was sunny, crowded, and a lot more ground was covered. 

Dinner brought us to Indiatown in East London.  Most everything was closed except the restaurant, Tayaabs.  Such a busy and popular place!  Big lines, and apparently every night is like this. Five types of curry, with nan, meats,  mango lassi.  Yum.

Excellent dinner at Tayyabs!

Feeling stuffed, we started our drive home, but not before stopping by the O2 dome and Greenwich Park.  You could see the sunset behind Canary Wharf.  It was beautiful.  And Greenwich Park was so clean, grassy, big.  I wish I had spent some time here when it was sunny!

Sunset view at Greenwich Park.  WOW!

Lots done today..tomorrow should be more relaxed at Leeds Castle and Rochester.