Day Seven (cont.) - 18 September
We arrived in Rochester and taxied to our hotel the Ship and Trades in nearby Chatham. The fifteen room hotel sits on the waterfront with views of the marina. The rooms are above a pub with outdoor seating. It was a very nice setting. We spent time outside eating, drinking, and, after talking to the front desk staff about transportation options, arranging our transportation for the next couple of days - Rochester/Chatham have Uber.
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The view out our window at the Ship and Trades. |
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Rochester Cathedral. |
We walked from the cathedral to Rochester castle located on a hill overlooking the cathedral and city. The castle is hollow, the wooden floors between levels long gone. We climbed the stairs to each level until we reached the top. We admired the view before returning down the stairs and exited through the gift shop.
We took a taxi back to the Ship and Trades where we checked out and had some drinks at the pub. An Uber picked us up and took us to the nearby town of Cooling. We'd expected it to be a long drive out in the country but, while it felt like it was out in the middle of nowhere, it turned out to be a fifteen minute Uber drive. We were dropped off at the Saint James church where we would be spending the night. In the graveyard surrounding the church there is a cluster of children's graves. This church and these graves were one of the inspirations for Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations".
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Inside the Rochester castle. |
I expected someone to meet us but we were alone when we arrived. There was an outhouse next to the church entrance. We used the code from an email to open the outhouse and another code to retrieve the church key from a lockbox inside. We put our bags in the church next to the camp cots we would sleep on, locked the door with the key (the key was big enough to be a deadly weapon), and walked the block or so to the village pub - the Horseshoe and Castle.
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Saint James Church, Cooling, Kent, UK. |
We returned to the church and explored it. The walls of the vestry were covered in shells, the symbol of Saint James (and on the Camino). There was an organ but it could not be played. We locked ourselves in and we went to bed expecting it to be cold overnight and it was chilly but we brought what we needed to keep warm (our sleeping bag liners and warm clothes). I slept surprisingly well.
The next morning our Uber came and picked us up and dropped us at the train station. Are you ready for some Futball?!?
Pictures can be found in my 2024-09 Great Britain Google Photos album.
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