Canterbury

Yesterday I spent the day with two gals from my class in the old city of Canterbury. Canterbury is a beautiful town with rich history and great architectural beauty: It houses three buildings that are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Stepping out of the train station the first things to be seen are castle ruins and a wall dating from the Roman period. Later, when walking through these ruins, I was overwhelmed by the thought that I was standing in the same building (obviously in much worse condition now :) that people had lived in in the 11th century! Canterbury castle's dungeon also jailed Christians who were martyred for their faith under 'Bloody Mary.'

I had my first banger's & mash - a delicious meal consisting of 3 sausages, a huge pile of dijon-flavoured potatoes, smothered in gravy. I topped it off with a British alcoholic cider....SO good!

We stopped in a few charity shops, visited the Canterbury Museum and ended up in Greyfriar's. Greyfriar's is a beautiful garden (named for the monks who wore grey habits) with a stream running through it and some delightful old ruins.

We also visited the oldest church in England (a UNESCO Heritage Site) - St. Martin's, which dates from the time 6th century!!!!! The graveyard was pretty cool and overgrown. Unfortunately we weren't able to visit St. Augustine's Abbey as it doesn't open until April 1st (yes! we missed it be 1 day!!!).

Last, but not, we ended the evening strolling through the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral. I have never seen such beautiful cloisters! As the bells tolled, I could picture monks or nuns walking through those halls on their way to evensong or vespers.

We were able to attend evensong - I find that every church's service has something special to offer: this time the Anthem consisted of the choir and a cellist....beautiful!

The inside of Canterbury Cathedral is breath-taking! It is nothing like St. Paul's Cathedral with all of its gold and glitter (literally). Rather, it's beauty is more in the sheer simplicity of it's gray stone carvings and the rows of tall columns. It is breath-taking to see the columns rise hundred's of feet in the air - and to think that people had the ability to create buildings of such beauty and skill hundreds of years ago! I think I may have to visit this place again....

If interested you can see some of my pictures or read more about the history of the cathedral here.