An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
We attempted to use this down day to catch up on some phone calls for our future travel plans, but some things are just better handled back in the U.S. We headed out to explore the town, stopping first at the Parkroyal hotel for brunch. We sat in their lovely atrium lounge and shared a mushroom/swiss/mustard phylo creation, and a high tea, though instead of tea, we had an iced coffee and the superlative iced chocolate. As it was still raining, we walked along the pretty park to the Arts Center — a collection of galleries, shops and cafes located in what used to be the main buildings of Canterbury College (the large, local school). They’re old, tudor style stone buildings that really took us back to the Quad, New Haven, or Cambridge (England, of course).
It turns out that this is graduation week, so special events are taking place. We went into the auditorium and caught the end of the Shenanigan Brothers show (a mildly amusing improv sort of thing) followed by a Jeopardy-type contest involving some graduates and some regular citizens, hosted by a local semi-celebrity (or so we inferred) who had such a strong accent that he sounded to us more like an American skit making fun of New Zealand accents. We stayed for a few rounds of pretty hard questions, then walked around and saw the rest of the Center. Wendy picked up a nice emergency (it’s cold and damp here!) scarf of local wool, and we saw some interesting art and crafts, then picked up some bakery treats and walked across the street to the Botanical Gardens.
Really one of the better gardens we’ve yet seen. This one is particularly notable for the great size and girth of many of its trees, as well as the variety of herbs and flowers with their wonderful fragrances. It was practically deserted and despite some sprinkles (actually each breeze would blow more drops off the millions of leaves than any rain falling) we wandered about in perfect serenity, with the fall colors adding a special touch to the beautiful grounds. There was also a nifty display of many different types of bonsai trees and several conservatories, filled with ferns, tropical plants, flowers, and (Milton’s favorite) a nice and diverse collection of cacti. But the grandeur of the trees (in terms of not just height, but trunk size, volume of limbs, size of canopies, etc.) is what we’ll long remember. . .
We went back to the hotel to get the car and return it this evening instead of tomorrow morning. (since we’re taking an early-morning train, why get up any earlier than we have to?) After that, we strolled some of their downtown shops. Wow, these people really know their outdoors gear here! We stopped for dinner at a small greek place and had a perfect chicken kebab and some spanakopita. As we headed back to the hotel, we marvelled at how much the city looks like it’s English (especially since the streets are Gloucester, Leicester, Oxford, etc.), but also has a nice college-town feel to it. We tried again for the movies, but their 8-plex was only showing last year’s American movies, and not necessarily the best ones at that. So we caught an old Bewitched, Seinfeld, and Larry Sanders and rested up for our busy day of sightseeing tomorrow.