Friday
Friday was 'Dad's walk' day. We were to walk from Maidstone to the bridge over the Medway near Rochester (mostly along the riverside footpath), then get a train back to Maidstone.
We began by walking quite a long way along the river, leaving Maidstone behind and passing through at least one pretty village (which I haven't selected any pictures of).
Eventually we left the river and struck out across land for a bit along footpaths.
We stopped for lunch in the churchyard of a small disused church; it's not used for worship but the building is still open, it's maintained by some charity or other. (I thought it was 'Friends of Friendless Churches', but it's not on the list on their website. Hm. Maybe something else then.)
We took a rather long way around on an embankment that followed the curve of the river (rather than cutting across it) in order to get a better view of the factory we'd been seeing for a while, which turned out to be a paper mill. I think the factory is in the wonderfully-named Snodland, 'the Middlesbrough of the South'. We went through Snodland on the train later and although there were a few factories, I don't think it compares to the Middlesbrough of the North.
Eventually we left the river once more and followed roads and footpaths for the last part of the walk.
Finally we crossed the now-rather-large river on the bridge that carries the motorway (there's a footway; it's part of the North Downs Way, although I'm not sure we ever crossed it when we did that).
We then managed to find a railway station which, impressively, had no information display at all; there was a printed timetable and that was that. It didn't even tell you which platform was which. And the level-crossing gates were pushed across manually, i.e. there is an actual person whose job it is to open and close gates... despite such evidence of antiquity, the train did still arrive and successfully took us back to Maidstone.
Saturday
We went to Canterbury to do the tourist thing (well, except that we didn't go into the cathedral, which is Canterbury's only tourist attraction).
St. Martin's church, on the other hand, we did go to see. It is supposedly the oldest parish church in England that's been in continuous use (since at least the 6th century and possibly 5th). Of course, most of it's been rebuilt since then, but still.
After that we went to a small museum in the old gatehouse at the other end of town. It's still a gateway - a busy road runs underneath.
Finally we visited the ruined keep. None of the interior is left but the walls are pretty impressive.
We vaguely wandered back to the station.
And that's it!
Thanks for getting this far. :)