Canterbury & Dover

Yesterday was a long day but well worth it! We traveled to Canterbury and Dover today. What amazing places! Canterbury was cool to visit because I had read Canterbury Tales in school. Getting to visit a place you have read about is quite an amazing experience. When you first drive into the city it doesn’t seem like it still reflects the Canterbury you had read about but then you round a corner and there’s this medieval town laid out before you complete with minstrels – well, people playing music for money – and taverns. I don’t know if Chaucer would recognize it or not but it was quite wonderful. Steve, our guide, took us on a little walking tour of the city and then we got to roam on our town for about an hour.
Unfortunately the cathedral was closed to visitors because it was Sunday and services were going on but I got pictures of the outside. The Jesus you see wasn’t added until the 1990s. I think he looks a little creepy but that’s just me.

After that we took a boat ride on the river. Now when I say river I mean stream because what they have passing for a river is not much bigger than the creek in Camelot back home – not the English Camelot, obviously. Our guide on the boat tour was George and he is actually from Canterbury. The river tour was very nice. There are quite a few nice little gardens sprinkled throughout the city and we got to see a good many of them. We also saw where they are building the new Marlowe Theatre, which at the moment doesn’t look much like a theatre and is a building which George described as being one of the ugliest. It has its frame up yet so I guess I can’t judge too harshly. There are theories that Marlowe wrote some of Shakespeare’s plays. This is ridiculous. He was killed before much of Shakespeare’s plays were written. He was stabbed in the eye however there are people who believe he somehow survived this and escaped to France and wrote plays from there. I think not.

Dover was probably the most extraordinary of the two sites we saw today. The chalk white cliffs are massive and on a clear day you can see clear to France and her chalk white cliffs which use to be joined to England’s. Tectonic plates in action. Atop the cliffs is a castle, which has had parts of it in place since the time of the Romans. They had a lighthouse that later got incorporated into the chapel which was built next to it. We didn’t actually get to see the castle part – the Keep – because the wind was so bad. You see the castle is pretty much open to the air with no ceiling or roofing to protect you from the elements. My guess is – and I’m sure Steve told us at some point – that the Germans had something to do with this. The point is, now if the wind is really bad then it will sometimes create vortexes inside the unprotected part of the Keep which causes people to be in danger of their lives or at least limbs. I think it would have added something to the tour but no one else did. Oh well.

Under the castle is the really cool part, though. During WWII the English built a series of tunnels under the castle. It’s quite amazing. The system was never discovered during the war. This is also where rescuers where dispatched to Dunkirk to rescue British soldiers off the French shores. Walking through the tunnels was a little eerie because I kept picturing people from before I was born rushing through the halls. The whole time they are so close to being discovered and destroyed but they are told not make any real personal connection to the people they were working with. Can you imagine? I would go nuts – well, more than I already am.
Unfortunately, Facebook won’t upload at the moment so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow. You’ll have to take my word for how beautiful these places were today.

Tomorrow it’s back to class and then Camden Town. See you all then!