But London is also great for going around and seeing the main sights in England. There are a ton of well priced day trip tours, that usually have good discounts for students, and take a lot of the pressure of planning off you. It is also great if you are in a group and the hassle of public transport over longer distances would crimp your ability to do things, especially when driving is required, in a country that drives on the wrong side of the road.
One of the combination tours that we decided on as a group took us to Leeds Castle, Canterbury, and a brief stop at Dover. For the record, the stop at Dover was totally unedifying, completely dissatisfying, and forced me to go back. That’s a subject for later though…
Now then, Leeds Castle is not in the big city of Leeds, which is up in Yorkshire. This Leeds is in Kent, way down in southern England. The location is what makes the castle really interesting…
A moat that is in actuality, a decent sized lake; now that’s a solid defense. It’s an old location. It was built in 1119 for Edward I, aka Longshanks and his wife. So it was something of a royal country retreat.
A lot of old parts were in pretty good shape…
The castle passed into the hands of some private lords and ladies who dolled the place up, so the mix of old and new was a bit of a constant. It was even more fairy-taleish because we were sitting in the middle of lake…
It’s a pretty popular place now for receptions—expensive ones—and weddings. This lady was playing the theme from Schindler’s List, so I am really hoping that it was for a reception.
More old-new dichotomy, though I am sure you would love backgammon in an old parlor in a castle mom :)
And the library…
Only downside to the day was that it was fairly cold and rainy. Though I remember handling it better than some of the others *cough cough Florida people* Of course, I spent the Christmas in Norway, and that would pretty much prep you for anything.
After a good couple of hours at Leeds we moved on to the City of Canterbury, where the Cathedral of Canterbury naturally sits, and where the Archbishop sits. He’s the head of the Church of England and has been since Henry VIII decided to break away from the Roman Catholic. You may hear a lot about him in this blog. He is the king always portrayed as a large fat man—except in The Tudors—and he is the one with all the wives. There weren’t eight, only six, and they taught us a nice little rhyme to remember the fate of each. “Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorce, beheaded, survived.” And no, I can’t remember their names without looking them up.
Anyways, Canterbury: still got the old style gate the pilgrims used to pass through…
The Cathedral itself is really pretty, but you can’t see it until you get through the gate. I found that a little strange after seeing so many other cathedrals in Europe.
I actually found quite a few things about it that stood out as different. In most cathedrals you can see from one end to the other, but this one has a huge wall right in the middle…
It also had a strange central space for the choir and the altar…
Still pretty though…
Another interesting bit of history is Edward the Black Prince’s burial regalia.
The cathedral itself has a long and violent history. It was damaged many times from various Danish viking raids in its early history. The most famous act of violence was when several knights killed Thomas Becket. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to 1170. He was originally a friend of the king, Henry II. They butted heads over several issues and when the King supposedly said "who will rid me of this turbulent priest," some young knights took it literally and assassinated Becket. Ironically his death put Canterbury on the map, as he was admired as a martyr all over Europe. He was canonized only three years after his death. The pope excommunicated the four knights who killed Becket. They went to Rome begging forgiveness, and then went on to the Holy Land on crusade for fourteen years in penance.
Canterbury is a cute little town and we had a good time…
As I said, our trip to Dover was disappointing. We just pulled in down by the docks, and saw the castle and cliffs off in the distance. The cliffs we saw weren’t even white. Mom really wanted to see the cliffs and this brief stop actually irritated me enough that I vowed to go back.
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