Canterbury

Canterbury is one of those places that I had always heard about, but never really knew too much about. I knew that there was a great cathedral and that Thomas Beckett was murdered there. I read the Canterbury Tales in junior AP English, but other than that I didn’t know too much town itself. I definitely did not expect it to be as wonderful as it turned out to be. We left our flats at 7:45 and were off at 8:30 on the coach.

Once we arrived, we figured out where we were and what we needed to see. We passed through the bell tower of a church were Christopher Marlowe, the playwright, was baptized. We found the cathedral, which was absolutely breathtaking. I saw that the crypt did not open until 1:00, so decided to go to the Roman Museum first. The museum was really neat and it had a floor of a corridor that was found during an archeological dig. It still even had the mosaics that made up the floor. After we left there, we decided to walk along the Roman Wall and passed by the Dane John Mound, park, and gardens, but we went back through it, so I will talk about it later.

The Canterbury Castle was amazing, especially on such a gorgeous day. We saw the ruins of an old Norman castle that was built around 1200. We walked around it before going in. Once we were inside, we were even allowed to walk up the stairs to the 2nd floor. Although it was only the ruins, I was really excited to see the castle in the condition that it was in. I even saw the ruins of old stairs on one of the walls. It is hard to imagine being in such an old place and all the history that occurred there in comparison to what I have seen in the states. Once we went back through the gardens, we saw a lot of pretty things and also a WWII bomb shelter! It was really exciting and Sam even got a picture of me running to it. Before going to the cathedral, we decided to eat something truly American, so we went to Subway! ☺ We were even allowed to get soda refills!!

I knew that the cathedral was going to be amazing, but I didn’t realize how breathtaking it was actually going to be. While walking through, I came to the verge of tears multiple times because everything was so beautiful. To top it all off, the choir was practicing as we were walking through. In the back of the cathedral, was the memorial for St. Thomas. When Henry VIII was king, he ordered the shines of all 6 saints were destroyed in Canterbury, so in it’s place, they placed a single candle. We also saw the spot were St. Thomas was murdered and one of the men came to tell us the story. It was incredible to be in that spot and to watch where the 4 knights came in to kill him as he was in prayer in 1170. We also saw a lot of great gardens and took a ton of pictures.

After the cathedral, we went to the Canterbury Tales Visitor Attraction. It tells Chaucer’s story as we walk through the re-creation. It was much more entertaining than it was when we were trying to read it in Junior English. We also kept walking around and seeing some of the neat sights. We ended up going into a used bookstore and I found the neatest book! It is an illustrated edition of Longfellow’s poetry that is in great condition, but the best part is that it is addressed to “Jessie from her mother – May 9th, 1887.” How amazing!!! Then we went to eat at a pub, and unfortunately, everything closes early in Canterbury, so we waited at the bus station for about an hour until our coach came at 8:30. After the longest day, we were finally on our way back to London. It was such an amazing trip and I cannot wait to go back one day!!