A Canterbury Tale

Jan 30

This was be a day to see a town that is famous for being the seat of the worldwide Church of England, Canterbury. The Archbishop of Canterbury, whose seat is Canterbury Cathedral, is the head of the entire Anglican Church created by King Henry VIII in order to divorce his queen, Katherin of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. The town is also named in one of the most famous of medieval literature, the Canterbury Tales.

Val cooked John a couple of eggs in the shell along with toast before they went, although she did not have anything to eat herself. She said John should drink more and John took the opportunity to say that Valerie should eat more.

It was a bright sunny but very cool day. Val and John took the bus to Canterbury. They sat on the top of the doubledecker and got some great views of the Kentish countryside, going through a number of small villages, past sweeping vistas of gently rolling country, and typical English country houses.

When they arrived, Canterbury was bustling. There were loads of people, although they walked as people do on Saturday mornings - with smiles and at leisure. The architecture was beautiful and even the newer buildings blended in quite nicely with the old. John took a number of shots of some of the more interesting buildings. He also walked over the oldest bridge in England and saw the ducking stool (a replica, obviously) for the medieval punishment of wrongdoers. They did a little shopping: Val wanted to get something for Amy and John wanted an electrical plug adapter so he didn't keep using Alan's. He is so grateful for the kindness and generosity shown by Alan and Sandra. And Val showed John a wonderful chocolate shop where John was offered three samples of chocolates (a full sized chocolate each time) and ended up buying three packages of scrumptious sweets, two to share with Val and Sandra.

As they were getting chilly by now they stopped into a coffee shop to get a couple of flat whites (coffees). John also bought an orange and lemon muffin but Val declined to eat even part of it. So, John, of course, gobbled it down.

Then, they were off to see the cathedral. Val insisted on paying their admission and it wasn't cheap. She also bought John a book about the cathedral itself. It was so worth it. The cathedral is stunning inside and it has so many small chapels and crypts as well as resting places of some very famous people such as the Black Prince, who fought for England in the Hundred Years' War against France, St. Anselm, and at least one English King and Queen.

Of course, the cathedral is most famous for a dark event in British hisory. Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury in 1170, was murdered at the altar on December 29 by knights of King Henry II. He had fought for the rights of priests to be exempt from the king's law. Becket was later proclaimed a saint by the Roman Catholic church. The tip of one of the knight's swords that broke off during the murder is still kept in the cathedral and the altar is called the Altar of the Sword's Point.

After looking around they noticed that the choir was about to practice so they sat down and listened to the all male choir (boys and men) sing. The sound seemed to fill the vast space especially as the voices of the young boys soared in the highest soprano.



They left, having had a moving experience and went back to the bus area. It was going to be quite a while until the next bus so they went to another coffee shop close by and got hot chocolate drinks before going back to the stop and catching the bus back. The sun was starting to sink and the cool day was getting colder on the walk back from the bus stop.

Once back in the warm welcoming house, Sandra had prepared a steak pie for dinner and John was hungry enough to wolf his down. He was filled with a warm feeling as he settled into bed and a deep sleep.

TRB