A Pilgrimage

Day 4
I was once again up at stupid o'clock to catch the 7am bus to Canterbury. This time I didn't miss it. Luckily the bus arrived early and I had a few minutes to wander before any of the sites were open or the streets were crowded.

I had a couple of different reasons for visiting Canterbury. Like most I was on my own pilgrimage to see the Cathedral of Thomas Becket fame. But I had another reason for being here as well. During WWII the German army had a policy of bombing non-military targets. Canterbury was one of these targets and was decimated when 6,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on June 1, 1942. Most of the medieval city was lost, however many of the most important landmarks survived. In retaliation the British bombed Dresden, destroying 80% of the medieval city. Canterbury was able to rebuild in ways that Dresden was not.

Fast forward several decades. Dresden was rebuilding its famous Frauen Kirche that had been completely flattened. As Dresden's now sister-city Canterbury donated a replica of the cross that had been on the spire to the rebuilt church. I worked in Dresden for a summer 6 years ago and wanted to make sure that I had a chance to visit both of these cities. It's amazing and wonderful how peace and friendship have come out of war.

My first stop was the Canterbury Cathedral. The Cathedral became an important pilgrimage spot when in 1170 King Henry II wanted some one to get rid of a mettlesome priest, Thomas Becket. Becket was killed while at prayer in the cathedral. You can go and stand on the area that he was murdered in. However, his shrine was torn down by Henry VIII in the 1500's.

Many other notables including the Black Prince and King Henry IV were also buried here. It was a bit like Westminster Abbey, just on a smaller scale. I was also able to take pictures here so I just went to town.

The crypt was really quite amazing. Some of the original bits that dated back to 597 could be seen here. The cathedral as it looks today was built between 1070 - 1077. Bits and pieces have been added and taken away, however the structure is essentially the same.

The cathedral alone is reason to come to Canterbury, but there are lots of other sites to check out. They are also all very small and located very close to one another.

My next stop was the Westgate Towers Museum. This is one the most most interesting gatehouses remaining in England. The museum was quite small but it was interesting and the person working there was very kind. As I was the only visitor he game me a personalized tour of the place. For only a 75p entrance fee it was a great deal. There were displays from the entire length of the towers history. There were bits of WWII shells, armor from the 16th century and the chance to make your own brass rubbing's. One of the more interesting pieces was the murder hole. It was a rather large hole in the floor that was used to dump hot oil on invaders who were below the tower. Up the spiral staircase was a nice view of the cathedral. It was really 75p well spent.

After lunch I was asked if I would take part in another survey, this one about batteries. After an exhausting 15 minutes of work I had earned a £2 voucher to Boots (like CVS) and was in desperate need of a vacation. Oh, wait, this is a vacation!

I was shocked at how early it still was a this point. Everything in this city is very small and very close together. That must be the reason. So I set off on my next task, I wanted to check out Canterbury Castle. Its located at the end of a really pretty walk around the medieval city walls. It was built around 1100 and is in ruin. There really wasn't much to see there.

The next small museum I visited was the Roman museum. Somehow I managed to walk through the whole thing backwards. The museum told the story of how Roman Canterbury may have looked. After the WWII bombings a large Roman house had been discovered, proving that Canterbury had been a much larger Roman town than had originally been thought. They discussed not only what the town would have looked like, but also the efforts put into finding and preserving the history. There was a picture of a young Queen Elizabeth with her parents checking out the newly discovered site. Just as I was about to leave a huge group of French kids came in. Great timing!

By the time I had finished this it was time to catch my bus back to London. I had an 8 pm Bootsnall meet up to attend.

It had begun to pour by the time Dave, Stu and myself were sipping pints at the World's End pub in Camden. We tried fruitlessly to find a place where we could actually hear each others conversation. Despite constant "huh, what did you say" we still managed to have a great time.