A Pilgrimage to Canterbury

This morning Mom and I took a high speed train from St Pancras Station to Canterbury.  

There are lots of wonderful old houses in Canterbury.

I'm not sure how old most of them are, but they certainly look old!

This is the Christ Church Gate built in 1517.

Inside the gate, the cathedral appears.

Founded in 597, the cathedral was completely rebuilt between 1070-1077. It was once again largely rebuilt - this time in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174.  

We walked around the outside first, admiring some of the architectural details.

Inside the building soars to the heavens literally and figuratively.

One of the smaller chapels is dedicated to a Kent military regiment. 

Thomas Becket, the archbishop under King Henry II, was famously murdered in the cathedral in 1170 by two knights who'd overheard the king exclaim in frustration, "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" There were significant eastward extensions added to the cathedral in 1174 to accommodate the flow of pilgrims who came to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket.  Do you remember your Chaucer? 

Much to see and admire and contemplate.

Canterbury does have some lovely stained glass windows.

This is a detail showing the Magi coming to see the newborn babe.

Here's one with Noah and the dove.

How could I ever chose a favorite? 

 During World War II, the cathedral's beautiful stained glass windows were removed for safekeeping from Hitler's air raids. It was a wise decision - the replacement windows were blown in. A large area of the town of Canterbury was destroyed, as was the cathedral library, but the main body of the cathedral remained intact; in part due to the efforts of the Fire Watchers.

After a break for lunch, Mom and I set off on a three mile walk along the Great Stour Way from Canterbury to Chartham.

With a river, and marshes, and lakes along the walk, there were also lots of birds to enjoy.

Here's one of the buttercup-filled meadows.

And here's a selection of the many wildflowers.

To my west coast eyes, the Stour is small - I think we'd call it a stream rather than a river.

Here's one of the marshes we passed by.

The Stour is exceptionally clear chalk-bottomed river.

I got excited when I saw a cottontail bunny.  Then I realized I could see twenty or more bunnies munching grass.

Besides the bunnies there were sheep, Highland cattle, and donkeys.  We carefully went through several wooden 'kissing gates' used to keep the livestock from escaping from their areas of pasture.

This thatched roof cottage with its female garden scarecrow was hands-down the Most Charming House.

We arrived at the Chartham train station with ten minutes to spare and caught a train back to London Bridge station.  I was pleased to see several oast houses(right of photo) along the way. An oast house is a building designed for drying hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in many hop-growing areas like Kent. It is now fashionable to convert a redundant oast house into a family domicile.