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Logger above, gps below

We picked up the javelin train at St. Pancras and enjoyed a smooth ride to Rochester. It was a grey day

Rochester Cathedral from the Station	We had a good cup of coffee and enjoyed some paper art		Front and back
	Shoes and shadows	Wedding dress	Front and back
Colours produced from the lightshades	Floral guts	Cloud effect	War memorial and cathedral
People associated with Rochester. This does not enlarge
The High Street was full of individual shops		The deaf cat
Steiff shop
King's Head			Rochester Castle
Catalpa bignonioides - Indian Bean Tree	Rochester Cathedral West Front
Bulgy wall below the window		Satis House	Solanum crispum album
Lizard	Whitefriars	Funfair for Christmas	Dragons holding beer bottles
We walked around the inside of the castle. The stone used in the building was Kentish Ragstone		Model of the castle	Staircase

Funfair and bridge	Submarine U-475 - Black Widow A Soviet Navy submarine of the Cold war period. She had a total length of 67.10 m (220 ft 2 in), a pressure hull length of 50.50 m (165 ft 8 in), a beam of 6.20 m (20 ft 4 in), a height of 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in) It is now in private hands. It is currently moored at Strood, on the River Medway, in South-East England.	Rochester Cathedral	This was the site of the last “Justice Tree” in the county of Kent – the ‘justice’ being meted out by the Court Leet – and consisting in the most serious cases of hanging on the gallows or Justice Tree (Also known as the ‘Grief Tree’, the ‘Gallows Tree’, the ‘Justice Tree’ or simply ‘The Tree’.) On the 3rd February 1820 the last public hanging took place in Rochester – that of a busking bagpipe player Duncan Livingstone who murdered his 10yr old assistant. His body is interred under the castle walls.

Poppy display
	Ancient wall painting	Towards the main door	Organ
	Bell from the 9th and 10th Cruisers called HMS Kent		Carved door
In 1901, the ninth HMS Kent was built at Portsmouth as a heavily armed first-class cruiser. At the outbreak of World War I she sailed for the South Atlantic and joined Vice Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee’s squadron seeking to destroy a German squadron under Admiral Graf Von Spee. For seven hours she chased the German cruiser Nürnberg before sinking her. The tenth HMS Kent, one of the first County class cruisers, was built in Chatham Dockyard and launched in 1926. For eleven years she was flagship of the China Fleet, a prestigious symbol of Britannia ruling the waves during the last years of the British Empire. After returning to Chatham, she sailed in 1940 to escort convoys in the Indian Ocean before transferring to the Mediterranean. Operating off the North African coast she received a direct hit from a torpedo dropped from an Italian bomber. Eventually she returned to Devonport but whilst being refitted was damaged by a bomb dropped on the dockyard. Repairs were finally completed and she took part in the notorious Arctic convoys to Russia seeing active service off Norway in 1944. Her distinguished career came to an end when she was broken up in 1948.

	We had a late lunch at a very crowded Wetherspoons
Charles Dickens	Not Charles Dickens		Virginia creeper
	Restoration House in Rochester, Medway, South East England, is a fine example of an Elizabethan mansion. It is so named after the visit of King Charles II on the eve of his restoration. Charles had landed in Dover on 25 May 1660 and by the evening of the 28th arrived in Rochester.		CCF

	Old oak gate post	Heps
Famous Great White Clock of Dickens Dinglebury Arms
Guildhall museum
Guildhall Museum	Traction engine	Rochester Castle
		William III	Fishing boats
	Life below decks	Bridge over the Medway	We had a trouble free journey home. It had been a grey day, but enjoyable