Canals & Religion

We hopped on an early coach after a wonderful full English breakfast and thirty minutes later arrived Canterbury. Our first stop was St. Augustine’s Abbey, (just outside city walls) founded in 597 under King Ethelbert by Saint Augustine. The site itself, like most abbeys, is demolished down to the flint core. Despite that there is tons of history; early Kentish kings were buried here and their gravestones remain. It was a drizzly, cold day to walk around the grounds but it made for few visitors. The grounds weren’t large but the splendor of the old abbey wasn’t lost. It was easy to tell how large the abbey became by the 10th century and one could only imagine the money they were pulling in. Obviously, the abbey was partially dismantled under King Henry VIII with all major stone going to other works and valuables being sold off, lost, or destroyed. The body of Saint Augustine himself was held there since his death with his coffin readily on display the whole time. Since the dissolution his body has gone missing.

In the early afternoon we made our way into the town, which still has traces of the medieval wall surrounding it. We took our time and walked through the narrow streets and took in the medieval surroundings. We decided not to go into the cathedral, but rather to explore more of the town and quickly hit a few pubs. The cathedral was walled and outside the main entrance was a tiny square where all the French tourists hung out. Plus, there were two milkshake shops in the vicinity; the shakes sucked. We realized there were small canals running throughout and slightly under the city but we just missed the last canal boat tour so we opted to explore the north gate area.

As with all medieval cities the north part of the old city had a gate that was expanded through the centuries and amazingly cars still drive through it. The gatehouse served as accommodations for guests and prisoners. It was time for tea so went to a small teahouse on the other side of town near the cathedral. The building itself must’ve been centuries old, easily Tudors. We sat upstairs and realized the building was leaning heavily to one side, so we leaned the opposite way. The rooms however were easy on the eye decoration wise and brightly colored. The waitress huff and puffed up the stairs to serve the tea, which had dust all over the service set! We laughed at it, wiped it off and enjoyed the experience. Another stop in a pub and a quick peak into the Canterbury Pottery to buy our obligatory tea set piece and we had less than an hour before our coach left for London.

It was about this time a metallic smelling fog rolled into the city. It was about 6pm so we figured the fog was natural and the smell of odd house fireplaces going. The cathedral was open to the public now so we stepped inside the grounds to take a look at the exterior of the building. The bells were going off for a while so I tried to record them; too many talking people around though. On the coach ride home we noticed the fog was all over the countryside and the sunset was a deep red, like a forest fire sunset in Los Angeles. Turns out it might have been smoke from the Icelandic volcano turning the sunset deep crimson.

It’s great to have these cheap yet culture-filled experiences, this is the main reason we came here. We’re very lucky to have the opportunity to do so. I never really guessed we’d be able to do something like this and actually manage a living.

Here are the same craptacular photos.