Sunday busses and trains, Ramsgate to Canterbury, don’t ask – bit more painting in the cathedral, minor ramble.

Due to having a full car it was me that volunteered to do the Ramsgate to Canterbury public transport thing. Now on weekdays and Saturdays the Canterbury bus goes from outside my bookshop to the middle of Canterbury and takes just under an hour. Driving to Canterbury on the other hand, takes just over half an hour and by the time I have parked and walked into Canterbury from the cheap car park near Sainsbury’s I am in Canterbury in just under an hour.

Not on Sunday however, you have to via Margate, just under two hours it took, the bus from Margate to Canterbury is more modern, more legroom, more comfortable seats and wifi, which the Ramsgate to Canterbury one hasn’t got.

This isn’t really a moan, more of an observation, I could have taken the train but with the works on the line and having to get from stations to towns, in both cases there didn’t seem to be much in it.

Still on the subject of trains, does anyone know anything about the Margate land train? I remember it at Westbrook up to around 1995 I think, probably took photos of it, but can’t find any. This is to answer one of the many local history email questions I get, so if anyone has the info I will blog it.

I did find this on Margate Local & Family History Facebook page, but no dates, or historical info,

https://www.facebook.com/MargateHistory/photos/a.322539634447934.68660.192776400757592/781420848559808/?type=3&theater

I always find it interesting how quickly things become pretty much forgotten.

This is a picture of the Ramsgate one which I posted on the blog some time ago, I think there were some comments on one of the Facebook groups that I linked the post to but can’t find them now.

On the whole blogger is better when it comes to internet searches, but I think the progressive increase in the internet trying to extract money for pictures is over writing a lot of the free information an pictures, unless of course you have endless time to spend looking.

I think there is a bit of an issue though where lots of local history is being put onto Facebook which most people use, but can’t be found by using Google search which most people use. 

Back to today, after two hours of bus, I arrived in Canterbury feeling distinctly jaded and made straight for Chocolate Café and Yorkshire Tea, looking down out of the window I noticed a chap sketching, so I sketched him for a bit, 

but it didn’t go well. I blame the bus, sketching people when looking down on them from an upstairs widow is a bit of an acquired skill and I haven’t really acquired it yet.

The main sketch I am doing from upstairs in chocolate café has developed a chameleon quality due to the changes to the view, the cathedral being covered in scaffolding and the building in the foreground changing colour. So I went off to the cathedral to paint for a bit the business with the bus having worn off.

A bit more on St Anslim’s chapel, until closure for evensong – the chapel that is.

This is the photo for any aspiring art critics who may be unfamiliar with St Anslim’s chapel. 

Back to work in the bookshop tomorrow, here is the link to the books that went out on Saturday posted here http://thanetonline.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/the-dark-tower-in-bookshop.html by mistake instead of the bookshop blog http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/