A Canterbury Tale

Thomas Becket was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162 by King Henry II. In 1170, the conflict between Becket and the king reached a boiling point and the king had him murdered in the cathedral. This alter was installed in 1986 to mark the spot of his martyrdom. There is a plaque on a nearby will nothing that Pope John Paul and the then Archbishop knelt in prayer here.

Although initially interred in the crypt under the church, Becket's remains were moved to the freshly completed Trinity Chapel in 1220. There he remained until 1538 when King henry VIII, had the shrine demolished and his remains loaded into cannon and shot against a wall. In the picture above, A candle sits on the floor in the Chapel marking the location of the shrine.

It is an enormous space. Originally built in 597, rebuilt completely between 1070 and 1077, then largely rebuilt in the Gothic style in in 1174 after a fire. The light through the windows (lots of sun yesterday) really fills the space and gives it, if not cheerful, at least welcoming feeling. Of course, if you stop to read about all the folks buried there along, in, and under the walls and floor, that tells another story with a very different feeling.

Canterbury is a nice little town with a pedestrian mail in the city center.

We arrived at the Canterbury West trains station (in the upper left of the map) and it was a short walk to the city center. The section marked in purple on the map is pedestrian mall.

You can see more photos in the London set on Flickr.

The train from St. Pancras was delightful. It was a very smooth 55 minute ride. At times I could hardly tell the train was moving. And since you are all wondering, the toilet on the train is really large with a fold-down baby changing table in it. All neat and clean. I could get hooked on this traveling by train thing. Dosing or looking out the window as the green countryside (amazingly green for January) goes sliding past is a pleasant way to move about.

We had lunch at the Cafe Rouge and were forced by law to sample the chocolate from a local chocolate store.

Although I don't have photos, Canterbury was built on the site of a Roman town that was constructed in 43 AD.  It grew into a large bustling provincial city with paved streets. In a museum under the city, I was able to see portions of the Roman streets with mosaic tile designs inlaid in them. These were discovered in the clean up after WWII.