Day #131 - Canterbury Cathedral and Leeds Castle

Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral

Famous stain-glass windows

Leeds Castle - from a distance

Leeds Castle - and the sheep field I walked through

Friday, July 23rd

Today was interesting. I took a late morning train to Canterbury, England. I actually had to take 4 different trains to get to my destination. I would find out more about trains later on in the day.

A couple hours, I was in the city of Canterbury. I wanted to see the Canterbury Cathedral. Referencing my 1000 Things Book - The Cathedral was built back in 1174 - this structure has gone through some changes. It was once England's - and northern Europe's - most sacred pilgrimage site. In 1170, one of the most important incidents in British history took place here -- Archbishop Thomas Becket was cruelly murdered in the northwest transept of the cathedral by four knights of Henry II. He would be canonized three years later, encouraging a repentant Henry II to establish the cathedral as the center of English Christianity.

The cathedral is famous for it stained-glass windows. Although much of Canterbury was destroyed in air raids during World War II, the windows were preserved as they were taken down for replacements.

You can see the pictures I've attached, a visually impressive place. It's hard for me right now to distinguish between churches - I've seen many. It's not Notre Dame in Paris or St. Mark's in Venice - but it was neat to see. The town of Canterbury was active, I'm assuming a highlight on many tours. I saw a number of tourist groups walking the streets. The town is also famous for Canterbury Tales - written by Geoffrey Chaucer about a group of pilgrims who traveled from London to St. Thomas Becket's shrine in 1387. I haven't read the book - purely referencing a note I read.

After Canterbury, I headed in the direction of Leeds Castle. This castle is located just outside of a very small town - Hollingbourne. I took the train to the stop and then started walking. It was now around 4:00pm. (With all my transfers and wait times - I was not very efficient today). I wasn't sure where I was going in Hollingbourne - just walking. Small town, everything locked up - not sure why. I finally found this little pub and asked where Leeds Castle was located. They pointed me in a general direction and I continued my journey.

I soon saw some signs. I made it to the entrance and it was after 5pm now. Sign says: "No more vehicles allowed after 4:30pm". I walked in and talked with a guy at the booth collecting money. It costs $17 for entrance fees. This guy was really cool. He said: "I shouldn't tell you this, but there is a walking trail that parallels the fenceline of the property, you can walk this and get some pictures." He gave me a lengthy list of verbal directions. I lost him after about the fifth left turn. He told me that I could not come back this way - I had to go out a gate 'a ways up'. I headed out - no entrance fee, but very little direction.

About 15 minutes later, I was walking in the middle of a sheep field. The guy told me it was OK. I even saw signs saying it was a public walkway. Strange. I'm walking, all alone, in the middle of this huge field. Sheep are running out of the way. I felt comfortable on my buddies farm in Ballycroy - but I don't know anything about sheep. Hopefully I'm good here. I continued on and then to my left, I could see the Leeds Castle. I'm very bummed that I couldn't get inside the gates, from pictures and even at this distance, it looked awesome. It's surrounded by water. Very unique. This is what I'll remember most about this castle. My book states the lake-like moat is unlike any other water defense setting in Britain.

It was constructed in the 12th century. It gained much favor as a royal residence. Henry VIII spent alot of time here. 6 different queens called it their favorite residence. The castle itself is located within a huge park. People were walking around the lake and the grounds. There is a Dog Collar Museum on the grounds. Dogs once played an important role in guarding the grounds.

I continued walking as the man had instructed until I came to a road that led me out to the highway I needed to follow to the train station. This place was really neat - I wish that I would have made this my first stop of the day. It trumped the Canterbury Cathedral. I could have walked around the park grounds for a long while.

I get back to the train station and start my journey of 4 trains back to Gatwick. After departing train #2 - I met this older gentlemen. He was waiting for the same train as me. We had just missed the previous one - and had to wait an hour. This guy was a former train worker. He proceeded to tell me all kinds of stuff about the UK train system. He said that it is notoriously poor. Up until 10 years ago, all the trains were run by the British Railway. Things went fairly smoothly. Then, the system decided to go with private companies. Now there are 25-30 different companies that run the trains in the UK. There is no consistency on who handles what. He said that this continually leads to problems. Nobody really cares about the other companies - just themselves. It doesn't make for an efficient transportation system. I basically just listened to this guy talk for about an hour - interesting perspective.

I made it back to my hotel about 11pm. I just did all my laundry in the bathtub. Another small thing to be thankful for -- washing machines and dryers. It's 1am and I'm about shot. Until tomorrow - good night.