July 24: Canterbury

When I was planning this trip, I knew I wanted to spend a little time in Dover.  As I went to make reservations for a train from Dover to London I saw that the train would go right through Canterbury and that I'd be traveling on a Sunday.  So it seemed like a no-brainer to make a little stopover in Canterbury to go to church at the cathedral.  That meant one less day in London afterwards, but as it turned out I had some extra time London I hadn't planned on, so I'm really glad I decided to spend a night in Canterbury.  I left Dover on a 9 a.m. train.  It only takes about half an hour to get to Canterbury, which left me time to get settled before the 11 a.m. Communion service. 
 
When I got off the train I had my mapping app all set up to guide me to the Cathedral grounds, but an older man in town saw me leaving the train station with a suitcase and looking around and he asked me where I was going and offered me directions.  It was very kind of him and I'm so glad he did because he gave me two options -- the quick way (which agreed with my app) or the way through the public gardens.  I took the latter and it was beautiful and very restful after my rush to get onto the morning train.

After I got through the gardens, Canterbury started reminded me of York -- adorable little pedestrian streets with medieval walls and gates still visible around them.  Canterbury hasn't kept nearly as much of the walls as York, but still there are quite a few gates and bits of walls, and they have Roman stones at the base.

 

And as I walked through the cute little streets I turned a few corners and saw the Cathedral looming over the town.  No need for more directions after that; even I couldn't get lost with that huge landmark to guide me!

I had found an absolutely wonderful place to stay in Canterbury -- the Canterbury Cathedral Lodge.  I highly recommend it.  Its main purpose is to provide a place to stay for clergy and others who are attending conferences and retreats at the Cathedral, but they offer the rooms to the general public when they're not needed for those things.  It's a very comfortable full-service hotel and it was actually cheaper than the alternatives I looked at when you take into account the extras provided: free breakfast and free admission to the Cathedral.  And it has a very lovely, peaceful atmosphere.

Canterbury is different from the other big famous cathedrals I've visited in Great Britain in that its grounds are completely enclosed in a wall.  That includes the cathedral itself plus administrative buildings and the conference center and beautiful gardens of its own.  Like all of the other famous cathedrals, you can enter for free to go to a service but if you want to explore as a tourist you have to pay admission.  At Canterbury, that applies to all of the walled grounds.  On Sunday mornings the grounds aren't open to tourists until after the big Sunday morning service.  But I was allowed in because of my reservation for the lodge.  One of the big perks of staying there is that you can go into the grounds anytime.  (There are also rules about being quiet and respecting the fact that the Cathedral is a place of worship, but not a problem for me.)  I quickly checked in to the conference center and dropped off my suitcase until my room became available that afternoon and they assured me that my guest privileges lasted all day today and tomorrow, even though I was staying only one night.  They gave me a guest pass for getting in and out of the grounds during restricted hours.

So there I was, with free access to the beautiful area around the Cathedral with very few other people around -- no tourist crowds! -- for a whole hour before the big service started.  I made the most of it; I viewed the Cathedral from every angle possible.  Not every angle yielded good pictures, since in many places it's hard to back up very far, but here are two that I like:

And then I wandered through the grounds.

Here's one more thing I found that I really like.  It's a stone in one of the gardens with a quote taken from a journal of William Wilberforce:

The full quote in readable form is:
    The day has been delightful.

    I was out before six & made the fields my oratory the sun shining as bright & as warm as at 
    midsummer.

    I think my own devotions become more fervent when offered in this way amidst the general  
    chorus with which all nature seems on such a morning to be swelling the song of praise & 
    thanksgiving.

What a perfect quote for a Cathedral garden!  William Wilberforce, by the way, was a member of the British parliament who worked very hard for the abolition of slavery, which they achieved in 1807 -- over 50 years before my home country and without a war.  I know this not because I'm a history expert, but because I saw a little monument to Wilberforce on my long walk in London last Sunday.

After a while the crowds started coming in for the big Communion service and I joined them. It was in the nave of the church.  Every cathedral is different and the nave of Canterbury seemed a bit rougher than the others I've seen on this trip.  Pretty, but not as polished.  Part of that may be just because they have simple wooden chairs instead of pews.  I liked the fact that it was obviously a parish serving local people and not just a tourist thing.  There was a visiting choir which sang nicely and a very good sermon from the Vice Dean -- who happens to be a woman!  She was shaking hands with people on the way out and I chatted with her for a moment about something interesting she had said in her sermon and I felt very welcomed.

By then it was time for lunch.  I wandered around the cute little pedestrian streets and found a place advertising organic food.  I don't usually take food pictures, but the lunch I got from the "My Little Box" restaurant was so cute and unusual that I had to snap a shot before I ate:

It's a slice of quiche plus a sampler of all their salads, served up in -- yes -- a little box.  Made of recycled paper.  And it was yummy (the food, not the box!)

After lunch I wandered the streets a little more:


Then it was time to check into the hotel.  My room is really nice and looks like it was designed with some real thought for what you'd need to be comfortable on a retreat where you'd want contemplative time.  Besides a comfortable bed, there's a nice big desk and a window seat overlooking a pretty garden:

After leaving my suitcase in this nice room, I went back to the cathedral for a beautiful Evensong service.  This service was in the quire, so I got to see a different part of the cathedral and it was beautiful.  And the music was amazing!  It was a cathedral choir from Grace Cathedral in San Fransisco and they were wonderful and so was the organist.  Two very different sorts of services in one day.

After that I really needed to stop a while and put my feet up.  I went back to my lovely room and got to sit and enjoy it.  I worked on this blog post and did some reading and had some wonderful peace and quiet.

This is a very long post, but I obviously have fallen in love with Canterbury.  I'm only here for one night, but I hope someday to come back and stay longer.  I think David would really love it too!