trip day 4
Day 155, March 13, 2009 Day 4
I got up and had a fry up downstairs as part of my room fee, like always. I didn’t want to dilly dally around seeing as I knew I’d be in the Cathedral for a long time and I wanted to try to avoid most of the school or tourist groups, more on that later. I went right to the Church, passing a stationary store on the way which had duct tape. YES! Now my ripped bag could be patched and would look super Alaskan. I knew I would be back that way so I continued on to the Cathedral. This place, wow, just wow. It has a similar jaw dropping sort of effect that York Minster did. I’d even say that Canterbury was slightly bigger, the grounds certainly were with the library complex and open aired type of cloister. Regardless, it had that same sort of amazing architecture along with the fact that places like this always leave me wondering how the hell it was built so long ago. It’d be hard enough today, maybe even impossible, to build something like this. The other thing I think about is how many millions of people have been to pilgrimage at this place, or for ceremonies, or just prayer, whatever. The giant stone columns were like red woods and reminded me of the mines of Moria, well I suppose that last bit should be reversed but still.
Something that is really special about this place in particular is the Maryterdom of Thomas Becket. The actual murder took place here in 1170 and really defines a lot of the Cathedral and even the town itself. A very important event for the entire England Church. The coolest part is that I STOOD on the spot that he was murdered by 4 of Henry II’s knights after Henry had let slip that he wished that the problems that he was having with his old friend would go away. Once Becket was killed, saying that he’d gladly die for God while the knights chopped the top of his skull off, his blood was said to have super healing powers as people started coming from near and afar to see his relics, like an arm bone and his stone sarcophagus. It really was a big deal and a lot of the Cathedral is marked and defined by images of him in one way or another. Another highlight for me was the really old school stained glass. The images made out on the glass were a lot older and a different style than what I’d seen before; see the pictures on facebook if you want. The old treasury of the Cathedral was quite stunning as well. Places like this made so much money back then because of people giving money to the church, so their awesome gold and silver figures were quite stunning. The ceiling was of course amazing as well. Various parts of the church had different styles and the audio tour which I bought listened to every word explained them all very well. There was of course many things which had been destroyed by either Cromwell and his thugs or by Henry VIII and his separation with Rome. You wonder how much cooler these places would have been without those two mucking it up, or WWII, that too. Another cool little thing was the stone seat, more or less a throne on which all Arch bishop’s of Canterbury were given their position as head of the English Church. Also really cool to see pictures and video of JPII and the leader of the English Church, Robert Runcie, together in the 80s at Canterbury right where I was standing. The tomb of the Black Prince and his gauntlets, helmet, and sword were all amazing. Lastly, a little thing but quite great and putting it all in perspective was the stairs which I went up and took a picture of which were so worn down by millions of pilgrims over hundreds of years. Even now, someone like me who’s not there for religious purposes as much as I am for historical and architectural purposes. I too am a kind of pilgrim and that’s pretty cool. I’d say the only negative part to my experience was all the school groups of little kids that came in about an hour after I’d been there. Most were either Spanish or Italian I think, but it’s a lot harder to enjoy a quiet place like a Cathedral than frickin teenagers giggling about who knows what. So that was a little shitty. The other unlucky part was that the library and archives were closed for Friday only. Of course I was there on Friday, so that sucked. I really wanted to see the reading room and the archives of course, but alas. For sure though, the Cathedral was one of those places that was hard to leave cause it was just so awe inspiring and amazing. Good stuff.
After spending a few hours there I had one more thing I wanted to do in Canterbury and that was going to the city’s museum. Not too much to see there but good overall as well. Again, a pretty child friendly place but there was still plenty to see and learn from there. After this I got my duct tape from the store that I found and a new pen cause my old one ran out of ink. I came back to my hotel and got my ripped bag and patched it up with the tape, good as new. I love proper duct tape, pretty amazing stuff, seriously the bag is fine now and I plan to use it more before I leave here. Next up was getting back to Nettlebed sometime before the busses stopped running. Luckily I timed it just right and got back to Henley right before the last bus left, so I didn’t have to pay for a cab. Got back to the hotel and had some dinner and started to plan my weekend out as well. I found out that Saturday was the epic battle of Man U. vs Liverpool and it was on sky. Well I knew exactly what I was going to do the next day. Until next time.
I got up and had a fry up downstairs as part of my room fee, like always. I didn’t want to dilly dally around seeing as I knew I’d be in the Cathedral for a long time and I wanted to try to avoid most of the school or tourist groups, more on that later. I went right to the Church, passing a stationary store on the way which had duct tape. YES! Now my ripped bag could be patched and would look super Alaskan. I knew I would be back that way so I continued on to the Cathedral. This place, wow, just wow. It has a similar jaw dropping sort of effect that York Minster did. I’d even say that Canterbury was slightly bigger, the grounds certainly were with the library complex and open aired type of cloister. Regardless, it had that same sort of amazing architecture along with the fact that places like this always leave me wondering how the hell it was built so long ago. It’d be hard enough today, maybe even impossible, to build something like this. The other thing I think about is how many millions of people have been to pilgrimage at this place, or for ceremonies, or just prayer, whatever. The giant stone columns were like red woods and reminded me of the mines of Moria, well I suppose that last bit should be reversed but still.
Something that is really special about this place in particular is the Maryterdom of Thomas Becket. The actual murder took place here in 1170 and really defines a lot of the Cathedral and even the town itself. A very important event for the entire England Church. The coolest part is that I STOOD on the spot that he was murdered by 4 of Henry II’s knights after Henry had let slip that he wished that the problems that he was having with his old friend would go away. Once Becket was killed, saying that he’d gladly die for God while the knights chopped the top of his skull off, his blood was said to have super healing powers as people started coming from near and afar to see his relics, like an arm bone and his stone sarcophagus. It really was a big deal and a lot of the Cathedral is marked and defined by images of him in one way or another. Another highlight for me was the really old school stained glass. The images made out on the glass were a lot older and a different style than what I’d seen before; see the pictures on facebook if you want. The old treasury of the Cathedral was quite stunning as well. Places like this made so much money back then because of people giving money to the church, so their awesome gold and silver figures were quite stunning. The ceiling was of course amazing as well. Various parts of the church had different styles and the audio tour which I bought listened to every word explained them all very well. There was of course many things which had been destroyed by either Cromwell and his thugs or by Henry VIII and his separation with Rome. You wonder how much cooler these places would have been without those two mucking it up, or WWII, that too. Another cool little thing was the stone seat, more or less a throne on which all Arch bishop’s of Canterbury were given their position as head of the English Church. Also really cool to see pictures and video of JPII and the leader of the English Church, Robert Runcie, together in the 80s at Canterbury right where I was standing. The tomb of the Black Prince and his gauntlets, helmet, and sword were all amazing. Lastly, a little thing but quite great and putting it all in perspective was the stairs which I went up and took a picture of which were so worn down by millions of pilgrims over hundreds of years. Even now, someone like me who’s not there for religious purposes as much as I am for historical and architectural purposes. I too am a kind of pilgrim and that’s pretty cool. I’d say the only negative part to my experience was all the school groups of little kids that came in about an hour after I’d been there. Most were either Spanish or Italian I think, but it’s a lot harder to enjoy a quiet place like a Cathedral than frickin teenagers giggling about who knows what. So that was a little shitty. The other unlucky part was that the library and archives were closed for Friday only. Of course I was there on Friday, so that sucked. I really wanted to see the reading room and the archives of course, but alas. For sure though, the Cathedral was one of those places that was hard to leave cause it was just so awe inspiring and amazing. Good stuff.
After spending a few hours there I had one more thing I wanted to do in Canterbury and that was going to the city’s museum. Not too much to see there but good overall as well. Again, a pretty child friendly place but there was still plenty to see and learn from there. After this I got my duct tape from the store that I found and a new pen cause my old one ran out of ink. I came back to my hotel and got my ripped bag and patched it up with the tape, good as new. I love proper duct tape, pretty amazing stuff, seriously the bag is fine now and I plan to use it more before I leave here. Next up was getting back to Nettlebed sometime before the busses stopped running. Luckily I timed it just right and got back to Henley right before the last bus left, so I didn’t have to pay for a cab. Got back to the hotel and had some dinner and started to plan my weekend out as well. I found out that Saturday was the epic battle of Man U. vs Liverpool and it was on sky. Well I knew exactly what I was going to do the next day. Until next time.