Canterbury, Kent

I can't wait for the day when I won't be nervous before driving for more than ten minutes.

I drove to my dad's at the weekend.

I even took a half day off so that I could leave plenty of time before it got too dark and to beat the rush hour traffic.

But alas, that didn't work. Well, I didn't avoid the traffic that is.

For some reason, I saw that my petrol was at a half tank and I panicked, thinking an hour drive to Faversham would consume the other half.

What an idiot.

So instead of going straight onto the motorway, I looped around intending to go fill up before backing out literally last minute and having to join the motorway via the Beckton roundabout.

Now, most people have probably never had to use this roundabout but I listen to Heart every morning and there are always incidents on this damn roundabout.

And that day was no different.

Traffic lights were at green but no one could move.

We were all jammed into spaces in-between the traffic lights which coincidentally prevented anybody else from using other exits.

And then there was a lorry pulled over on the slipway with a police car diverting traffic around it.

I then proceeded to stall twice in a queue of traffic on the motorway (thank God we weren't really moving).

I got beeped at countless times for jumping lane last minute because that's one thing a sat nav on your phone does not tell you.

I stalled a further two times at one of the final junctions as I was pulling into Faversham.

BUT

I made it in one piece.

And the journey back on the Sunday was actually bliss (even though I was bricking it right before I left).

ANYWAY, this post was actually meant to be about the Saturday of my weekend with my dad when we popped over to Canterbury.

Two train stops from Faversham and you pull into a beautiful, medieval walled town.

The sun was shining. The park below the wall dotted with autumnal coloured leaves.

It was beautiful, and that was just entering Canterbury.

We wandered around the shops in the centre for a bit. 

Maybe I'm just used to a tacky town centre but this one was beautiful with a great variety of shops.

Cobbled streets. Christmas lights hanging ready to be lit. Timber-framed houses.

After a while - I may have picked up my first Christmas present of the year (you can never start too early) - we made a pitstop at Byron.

This was only the second time I've been in there, but, again, it was pretty darn good.

I went for the chicken burger with courgette fries this time. They were surprisingly good and not as filling as regular chips!

I really wanted an Oreo milkshake but I was too full. Sad times.

We did pop into a fudge shop on the way back though which made up for our lack of dessert.

I already can't wait to visit Canterbury again. You can take a river tour on the idyllic river, visit the cathedral, shop, eat or walk the Roman-built medieval walls.

A perfect autumnal day.