Day 13 - Canterbury, Dover, and Dinner

A quick start out of the B&B this morning put us at Canterbury about 11:00 am. I was very excited to have the chance to visit this cathedral. It's the seat for the Archbishop of Canterbury who is essentially the CEO of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion worldwide, of which the US Episcopal church is a part. In more simple terms, this is the mother ship for Episcopalians...ha! This is also the site where Archibishop Thomas Beckett was murdered within the cathedral by knights following orders from Henry II who famously asked who among him would get rid of Beckett.

We arrived in time to participate in a midday Holy Communion which was downstairs is the quiet crypt chapel. It was essentially lit only by light coming in from the short windows at ground level and there were only about 10 of us there. A pretty spiritual event really. We then began our walking tour and were able to see the spot where Beckett was martyred, the chapter house, the chapel where Beckett's remains are interred, the steps that millions of pilgrims have trod over the years, and some pretty impressive stained glass.

We ate another tea room lunch and then headed to the White Cliffs of Dover. It was raining upon our arrival, but my radar app showed the shower would move shortly, so we waited it out. After about 5 minutes, we trekked out and the light was very good for capturing photos of the cliffs AND the cliffs across the English Channel in France! What a busy port as well!

We were honored to have been invited to dine with Dr. Eric Binnie's sister and her family for dinner. On our way, we had an amazing double rainbow appear. We arrived at their home on the south side of London about 6:30 and had an absolutely wonderful evening of laughs, friendship, amazing food, and fellowship. I love having personal time like this whilst traveling; it really adds to the experience. Again, a big thank you to Agnes, Russell, Allison, and Gareth!

We are turning in at our lodging in Windsor. We return Phoebe to Hertz tomorrow and then head into London for the day. Can't believe it's our last day of touring...it's gone by very quickly.

 

Day 12 - Lincoln and Cambridge

We buzzed out of York this morning bound for a new cathedral to us all: Lincoln. Lincoln is very different as it's darker, has more details/colors in the pillars and just isn't as sanitized as York. It was wonderful! St. Hugh is interred in this cathedral and is regularly visited by pilgrims. One of the four original Magna Cartas used to be housed here, but in recent history was moved to the nearby Lincoln Castle for display. The choir screen is also unique in that it is made of stone and still retains some of its medieval paint! While walking along we met an extremely funny, knowledgable, and fun docent. He showed us some of the intricacies of the medieval stone masons and examples of Oliver Cromwell's soldiers removing the faces of sculptures. The town of Lincoln looked equally as fascinating as the cathedral so this has been added to the "do on next trip" list.

After a quick bite at Bunty's Tea Room, we climbed back up the town hill, got in the car and headed for Cambridge. Our goal was to make 5:30 Evensong at King's College and we did it! Another beautiful service with an amazing sounding full boys/men's choir. After the service, we strolled to Cafe Rouge (French) for dinner, then enjoyed a stroll back to the car in the chilly night air. Along the way we passed The Eagle pub where Crick and Watson used to come to chat and relax while they worked on decoding the structure of DNA.

We are turning in early tonight as we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. We are nearing the end of our journey, but still enjoying the run to the finish line with laughs and delight.