4/22 Canterbury and its Saint

On one of our first trips to England about 20 years ago, we visited Canterbury Cathedral.  It was a dark rainy day and it was a very depressing place especially the spot where Thomas Becket was murdered by four of Henry II's knights.  There was no one at that spot but me and I was feeling very strange.  I had to leave!  It was  so disturbing to me that I just couldn't stay.  Maybe Thomas' spirit was there haunting me, I don't know!  So I was anxious to go back and see if I still had the same reaction.  Maybe it was just the weather!  Today was sunny, the stained glass windows were glittering with the most incredible colors, the cathedral was full of people and the spot was not so spooky after all but it still was very moving.  There were a lot of students there and the looks on their faces were priceless as they listened to the guide artfully and skillfully pull them into the scene so they would understand what happened.  I came back later when no one was there and got a picture of the site.  The sculpture with its shadows represents the swords of the four knights pointing to the spot where Becket was murdered.  Well, enough of that.

The cathedral is absolutely awe-inspiring.  Some of the windows are medieval glass and some of the most valuable glass and windows in the world.

And you must always remember to look up when in a cathedral.  This next picture was taken by John as he laid down on the steps right under the point in the cathedral where the nave crossed the transept.   I think it's incredible.  Mind you, these are the ribs from the columns as they spread open when they reached the pinnacle of the spire.  You could stare at this for minutes at a time and still not take it in.

Another picture that John took that shows the awesomeness of this church is shown here.  What really boggles the mind is that the cathedrals were being built almost a thousand years ago. How did they do it?
The novel that explains this so well and the one that got me and John to start travelling to England is Sarum.  It's the story of the building of Salisbury Cathedral.  Another one is Pillars of the Earth.  If you like English history and historical novels, you will love these two.

After leaving the cathedral, we explored the streets of Canterbury surrounding it.  Higgledy piggledy roof lines, lovely old buildings, a charming area of this vibrant city.

One last stop on the way back to the flat was the Spitfire and Hurricane Museum.  These two planes were fighter planes who fought against the Germans during WWII and were extremely instrumental in the winning of the war.  We have been interested in the war because John's uncle, Frances Robin Graham, was a B17 bomber pilot who was killed over the North Sea during the blitz over Berlin.   Seeing how small these planes are and how vulnerable they must have been, you are struck by the brazen courage of these young men and what they were willing to give up for their country - their lives.