London with Margaret

Green Park, with the Canada Memorial

Last Sunday, I got the chance to meet Margaret for the day in London. I was so excited! I got a ride to London with a class from the castle going to London on a field study. We got dropped off next to Hyde Park, so it was a fairly quick walk to find Margaret at the Canada Gates outside Buckingham Palace. Everything worked out as we planned and we had no problem finding each other.

We started off towards Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, walking through Green Park on the way. It was so beautiful; it looked like something out of a movie. The photos don't entirely capture the gorgeous colour of the leaves, and there were people throwing leaves in the air, taking pictures, parents chasing their children through piles of leaves, etc.

Canada Gates at Buckingham Palace 

Canada Gates at Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace 

part of the Canada Gates

Green Park

in Green Park

Green Park

Green Park

We took some touristy photos of the Big Ben tower, and then went to Westminster Abbey.

oops, I accidentally turned the 'date stamp' function on.

I don't have any good photos from the Abbey, but there was some sort of remembrance event going on; the Abbey lawn was covered in wooden crosses and there were veterans and people wearing poppies (this was Sunday November 20, so it was not Remembrance Sunday- that was November 13th). We wandered into St. Margaret's Church at Westminster Abbey and listened to some music that was playing there.

again with the remembrance theme; this war memorial
was drawing lots of attention, just down the street
from the Abbey

Afterwards, we made our way to the Natural History Museum, a bit by Tube and a lot by foot.

This is part of the Natural History Museum;
it was so massive this doesn't begin to
portray it accurately.

One of my favourite things in the museum was
this giant sequoia tree; historical events
were marked on their corresponding rings
of the tree.

This tree is older than the start of Islam!
Isn't that incredible?!

inside the Natural History Museum

Afterwards, we walked around some more and just enjoyed being in London. I loved seeing the lit Christmas displays at Harrods!

part of the Harrods storefront

Then we had dinner in a pub before I caught my train back to the castle and Margaret caught her bus back to Bristol. It was a great day and I was so glad that I got the chance to meet up with Margaret before I go home! :)

Around Canterbury

Although I spent quite a bit of time at the cathedral while in Canterbury, I also had time to do a few other things in the town. The group I was assigned to for visiting the cathedral didn't have its time slot until noon, so during my free time in the morning I went to the ruins of St. Augustine's Abbey, about 10 minutes away from the cathedral. It was absolutely beautiful (I know I sound like a broken record by now) and I couldn't believe how deserted it was. I saw a total of 3 other people over the entire site during the hour and a half I was there. 

St. Augustine's Abbey was founded c. 600 CE! It was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII (in the 1530s). 

tower of Canterbury Cathedral as seen from
the Abbey grounds

museum/visitor centre on the Abbey grounds

I also really enjoyed getting the chance to just walk around Canterbury. It was fun looking in some of the shops and exploring!

I've noticed this in many places in England so far: many
random buildings have dates on them, demonstrating how
much more constructed heritage England has than Canada.
There are so many buildings like this that they aren't really
even 'special', just function as regular stores but have
the date stamp as a reminder of their antiquity.

Very popular store in England!

I couldn't get good pictures of this, but
there were Christmas lights strung across
the streets and lit decorations
on the lamp-posts and over some
of the streets, so it looked really
pretty in the dark!

My visit to the cathedral with my group from art history ended, and I had a few hours until the Evensong service began (we weren't obliged to attend, but most of us were very excited and made sure to go back for it!).

So, I found the Roman Museum. It's built over the excavations of part of a large Roman house under Canterbury, including several floor mosaics. The museum was right across from the cathedral but on a tiny, narrow pedestrian lane, and not very well advertised in the surrounding area, so this was another museum that I had basically to myself! There was one older couple that I saw near the beginning, but otherwise it was just me.

I feel like England just has so much more visible history- historic sites, ancient churches, museums, etc- that something that would be a major attraction in Canada, due to the lesser availability of such sites, receives much less notice in England. Think back to the number of times on this blog I've said 'I was the only one in such-and-such museum/historic site!'. There is such an abundance of fascinating historical sites here that it seems like they're almost taken for granted; there are so many amazing and well-known sites that other worthwhile ones, which are astonishing in their own right, get lost in the shuffle.

Lastly, here's a video I took while standing in the square outside the Christ Church Gate entrance to the cathedral grounds:

Canterbury Cathedral, Part 2

I thought it was a bit too much for one post, so here are the rest of my Canterbury Cathedral photos and videos.

Christ Church Gate leading to the cathedral

 Canterbury Cathedral is famous for being the site of Thomas Becket's murder in 1170. He had argued with his former friend King Henry II about the rights of the Church, and Henry supposedly said (half-joking), "will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?". Some of his knights thought he was serious, and rode to Canterbury and murdered Thomas in the cathedral. It quickly became a popular pilgrimage site, and even Henry II made a pilgrimage there to demonstrate his guilt. Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' chronicles the trip of a group of pilgrims making a journey to the cathedral.

shrine to Thomas Becket

the candle burns where the original shrine to Thomas Becket
stood, before it was destroyed by King Henry VIII at the end
of his Dissolution of the Monasteries.

the marble columns around the candle are
tinted pink to represent Thomas Becket's blood;
in the rest of the cathedral, the marble is white.

Memorial to the famous 'Black Prince' of England, son of Edward III

plan of the cathedral; it's massive! 

After we left Evensong, the cathedral's bells started playing (I didn't keep track but it was for at least 20 minutes). Below is a video of one of the cathedral's towers, seen from the cloisters, while the bells are playing.

Lastly, as I was leaving the cathedral grounds I stopped and turned around to take this one last video, again with the purpose of capturing the bells. They sound much louder and clearer in this video than the one above! You can also see some of the scaffolding being used for restoration work on the exterior stone.

Canterbury Cathedral, Part 1

Last weekend we got to go to Canterbury Cathedral! I've been fortunate enough to see some beautiful churches and cathedrals during my time here, and this was definitely one of the most impressive ones. It's the 'mother church' of the Anglican Church, and the Archbishop of Canterbury is the highest bishop in England.

We learned about the architecture of the cathedral in my Art History class, and when we were there it was our Art History prof who showed us around and pointed out things we had learned about in class. Here's a video of the Chapter House in the cathedral (that's my prof you can hear talking in the background):

Chapter House 

Nave

Quire

Below is a video I took of the nave. It doesn't do it justice and the sun had set so it was quite dark, but hopefully it gives you the idea at least!



My favourite part of the visit was attending the Evensong service. It lasted about 45 minutes, and included lots of singing by the cathedral's incredible men and boy choristers. The service was held in the Quire, and unfortunately no photography or recording was allowed. However, earlier I took this video of the Quire, which you can see below:

Lewes

On Friday I didn't have any field studies, so I decided to take the castle minibus to the nearby town of Lewes (pronounced "Lewis"), about 45 minutes away. It has a reputation as the wildest place to celebrate Guy Fawkes (some friends of mine went, and told us about lit firecrackers being tossed into the crowd and the crazy amounts of people!). But normally, it's a pretty quiet town! I really enjoyed walking the length of the main street looking at the stores (lots of antiques), but spent most of my time at Lewes Castle. The other place I wanted to visit, the Anne of Cleves House (belonged to Henry VIII's 4th wife) was unfortunately closed for the winter.

cool history timeline on a pillar supporting the
ceiling in the castle's museum

human remains in the castle museum. I can't quite
put my finger on it but somehow this was the most
callous treatment of human remains I've seen during
my stay here. It was in this little case out of the way
in the corner of the room with almost no explanatory text,
 whereas in other museums they're usually secluded, raised,
treated almost reverentially; and some
museums won't display remains at all. 

video about Lewes' history, accompanied by a model
of the town that lights up to highlight the locations
of different events.

closeup of the Lewes model

Shell Keep, Lewes Castle

this cannon was a trophy from the Crimean War!
(Fought by Britain in the 1850s)

view from the castle wall

view from the castle of the cliffs above Lewes

where the chimney and fireplace used to
be in the castle's kitchen

view from one of the castle towers; the drawing
shows what the same view used to look like

I climbed some very windy and steep stairs (mostly
in the dark) to get to the top of the castle's Shell Keep!

view of Lewes from Shell Keep

I was the only person visiting at the time, so I had the entire museum and castle to myself to explore! I took this video from the top of one of the castle towers.



Lastly, on my way back to meet the minibus, I snapped this shot of Lewes' War Memorial: