A Canterbury Tale

On Wednesday Andrew, Christine and I went to Canterbury, which is in Southeast England. It is, as you probably know, the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury; also Thomas Beckett was murdered in the Cathedral at Canterbury during his time as Archbishop from 1162-1170. 'The Canterbury Tales' were written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century about a group of pilgrims who came to Canterbury to visit the grave of Thomas Beckett. The town is beautiful and full of neat shops and historic attractions. Of note is the 'Canterbury Tales' visitor attraction: it is set up as a recreation of medieval England and welcomes the 'pilgrims' who came to see the grave of Thomas Beckett as told in the famous work by Chaucer ... it attempts to depict the sights, sounds and yes, smells of Canterbury during that period. I have to say that they did a pretty good job depicting all three of those ... it was a really fun way to visualize the period and the story. There is a pub where pilgrims are invited to warm themselves by the fire and have a pint upon their arrival to town ... the tavern is complete with drunk men passed out around the firepit (wax figures) ... then as morning dawns the narrator invites you to walk through the main street in town where you see the boot maker, some beggars and a water fountain ... there are a few more stops along the way and you finally end up in the market surrounded by people selling their wares ... oh, and the tooth extractor is also there with his latest victim. Then, finally you are taken through the chapel and back outside. Though it may have been a little cheesy, I still thought it was worth the money. I did try to take some pics of the wax figures etc. but because it was so dark it was hard to get enough light for a good shot ... I've posted the best ones on here.




We also visited the Canterbury Catheral, which was beautiful and so enourmous! It was so big that I could only photograph it in sections! And, just to see how big it really was, there is a picture of me beside it and, regardless of the fact that I am petite, I look like a peanut next to the Cathedral!







We planned to visit one more site before leaving Canterbury, but in our search for somewhere to have high tea, we realized that we were tired and ready to go home. The best part about the day was that it was sunny and WARM! Its not been a very warm summer here in England, which according to locals is unusual, so it was nice to have a beautiful summer day outside.

I will post again soon about my day with Fletch in Glastonbury. Oh, and to update you, Peter comes home tomorrow (I can't wait!) after having been gone a week to Maryland ... so we have some stuff planned over the weekend before Andrew and Christine leave on Monday. Tomorrow we are going to Legoland!

Team PM