13. Canterbury Cathedral

Date: October 16, 2011

With: Dave, Nic, Garriock

Where: Canterbury, England

700 years ago, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a book that followed the journey of thirty pilgrims on their way to the Canterbury cathedral. In the story, the pilgrims hold a contest where each has to tell four stories to pass the time and the best story would be determined at the end. The collection of these stories make up The Canterbury Tales. (PS I'm a nerd, I started reading the book the night before this trip, so I'd be able to recall the obscure details of the stories).

Like the pilgrims in this story, Dave and I, plus two of his classmates, Nic and Garriock, took a journey to Canterbury. However, we took a train instead of horses, the trip took an hour instead of days, and our tales mostly consisted of what we each had done the night before.

After a five minute walk from the train station, we came upon the main city gates.

After entering the town, we walked down the main stretch of the city. The city itself was fascinating. The buildings were all so old, but oddly had modern stores and chain restaurants occupying them. There was also a surprising surplus of Mexican restaurants...who knew?

After walking through the city for a few minutes, we got our first glimpse at the cathedral poking through the alleyways. This image was brought to you by Subway. 

Walking toward the cathedral, we came upon its main gates. It was kind of crazy to think that these are the same gates people have walked through for hundreds of years. 

 After entering the gates, we got our first good look at the cathedral. It was so massive! 

And here are three of the pilgrims, arriving at their final destination.

Staring up at just how tall this structure was, I couldn't help but wonder how incredible a sight this was back in the day. Additionally, as we entered, we were all amazed by the reliefs on the exterior walls. There was such attention to detail, and then to think that these guys were carved out of the sides of the walls, it sounds like a completely impossible feat, even by today's standards.

Upon entering through the southwest gate, we first found ourselves in the nave, complete with a massive basin of holy water. 

Everything in this area was so ornate and beautiful.

Now, I've talked about all these pilgrimages and people journeying to Canterbury, but the question is, why here? In 1170, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, was apparently a very strong-willed man who had several conflicts with King Henry II (surprisingly not Henry VIII, though he will come into play later). As a result, King Henry II apparently said "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" and four very proactive knights immediately rode off to Canterbury and murdered him in the cathedral. A shrine was built in his honor and for hundreds of years, people came to the cathedral to pay their respects.

After walking through the nave, we turned left into a noticeably dark part of the cathedral which was the actual spot where Becket was murdered. There is quite an interesting memorial here to mark the spot. Yes, those are blood stained daggers pointing to the word "Thomas".

After this part, we went into the crypt under the cathedral. Sadly, I couldn't take photos, but this place was so cool, I have to attempt to describe it. It was essentially a huge stone basement with large stone pillars scattered throughout with cordoned off sections of chairs set up for people to pray. 

The cathedral was originally a monastery in late 900s. So around the perimeter of the crypt, there were these tiny chapels, also made of stone. Apparently, several popes and other important people have used these chapels to worship for years. 

The part that was most incredible was how well-lit it was. There were small windows I can only equate to basement windows. However, they had been positioned in such a way that they caught the sun so well, there was almost no need for artificial light.

After leaving the crypt, we headed back upstairs. At this point we were underneath the tallest part of the cathedral.

Underneath the tower, were the steps into the Choir room. After waiting patiently for a large group of German teenagers to pass through this gateway, myself and about 5 other visitors were able to snap the perfect shot...until Dave came back through to tell me how I had to see the next room. I awkwardly tried to shoo him out of our shot while also pretending I didn't know him...sorry Dave.

I will say though that Dave was right. This was probably one of the most breathtaking rooms in the cathedral. Again, the way that the light shined through the windows, it was just completely incredible.

And let's just take a moment to salute America....

The stained glass in the cathedral was gorgeous. This window has scaffolding behind it, and it was still stunning.

And now for the main event. This is what people came to Canterbury for - the shrine of Thomas Becket.  However, remember when I said Henry VIII was involved in this story, as he always seems to be? Apparently, when he decided to split from the Catholic church, he dissolved all the monasteries. During this, he ordered that Thomas Becket's shrine and bones be destroyed. So now, there is only a candle that burns on the spot where his shrine used to be.

Surrounding the candle are several tombs, including Henry IV and the Black Prince. Apparently, the popular way for people to be shown on their tomb is resting their feet on their pets.

Back to the lighting and stained glass...

We entered a room on the perimeter of the cathedral that refers to this as the Miracle Window. We all sat here for probably about 10 minutes, just mesmerized by this window and the way the light shined through it. 

  After this, we exited the cathedral to walk the grounds a little bit.

We ended our tour of the cathedral in the cloisters.

 These are two happy kids that got to cross another thing off the list from the book.

After our touring, we were hungry, so we headed back to the town to try to find an authentic pub to eat in. It was surprisingly harder to do than we though, but we ended up at a small one off the main street that brewed it's own beer. 

After eating, we decided to do a boat tour. Canterbury is filled with several canals, and you can either go punting or rowing through the back alleys of the town.

While the boat trip was peaceful and relaxing, gently meandering the old canals of the city, there was a lot of ducking to make sure heads didn't get cracked on the bottoms of the bridges.

Incredibly random sculpture along the canal. 

Happy passengers...

Back on dry land, we continued to explore the town. We made another important discovery while wandering: Anti-Climb paint. First, there was a photo in order to pretend to climb on the anti-climb paint.  This was followed by the obvious question - what makes it anti-climb paint? Nic sadly found out - turns out, this stuff is really hard to get off. Hence the sign a little further down the way.

While Nic attempted to wipe the remaining gunk off his hands, we admired this yard ornament on a house down the street. The lady that lived in this house came out to ask if Nic wanted to wash up in her bathroom, as she'd seen him make the mistake of touching the anti-climb paint. So nice!

With clean hands, we continued on our journey around town. We went to an old abbey built in the 600s. They think the only reason it survived Henry VIII's dissolving of the monasteries was that it also served as a bridge. If it was destroyed, a new one would have to be built, and the men were just too cheap and lazy to go through all of that.

Finally, we decided to take the recommendation of our boatman and go the Dolphin pub to sample some of the local mead. It was very sweet, but if you don't mind drinking liquid honey, then you would enjoy it. 

Upon asking the bartender why there were Michelin men decorating this very old pub, he said "I think just because the owner likes them." Okay then.

Garriock would have been a giant back in the days when these homes were built. 

After our mead, we got back on the train and headed back to London. We had an absolutely beautiful day in Canterbury. I highly highly recommend the cathedral and the town definitely had a lot to offer. A successful first group day trip!