April 18 -- Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Dover Beach, and "Billy Elliot" (whew)!

All is well!  We connected perfectly with Kathleen and Alanna and had great day tour yesterday, going to Leeds Castle – like something out of Jeeves and Wooster, complete with classic cars – Canterbury Cathedral, and Dover Beach, with views of Dover Castle.  The weather was perfect, and we returned to London Station by 6:00, when some idiot (me) thought, “Why not see a musical?”  We decided to see Billy Elliot if we could get tickets, and we did, so a Cornish pasty later, we were in the nose-bleed session watching some amazing dance.  It was great, but a bit of an exhausting day, especially since Ian leaves tomorrow.

Alanna, Ian and Kathleen, with the moat of Leeds Castle (and some daffodils) in the background.

Evan Evans, our tour company, didn’t pick up outside of central London, and I was making arrangements before I had connected with Alanna and Kathleen, so I arranged for us all to be picked up at our hotel – making K & A start their day a little earlier than they had planned to!  They arrived at our hotel room at 7:30 – we were decent – and we all were picked up as scheduled.  Kathleen and Alanna were out the door fifteen minutes after they woke up, so we had a good chance to tease Alanna as she performed her morning beauty routine, in instalments, throughout the early morning.

The trip began soon after we arrived at Victoria Coach Station and got on our real bus.  Kevin, our guide, and James, our driver, were the same people who had picked us up. As we drove through London on our way to Kent, Kevin told us about all of the things we passed.  

Soon we were driving down the sweeping driveway to Leeds Castle, just as movie stars and important dignitaries did in the 1920s and 1930s.   This is a thousand-year-old castle that was first fortified in Norman times, and it has a natural moat.   

Henry VIII had it renovated and improved for Katherine of Aragon and it is sometimes referred to as the ladies’ castle or the queens’ castle because so many women have owned it.  The castle has suffered fire and war damage, and has been rebuilt many times, but by the 1920s it was rapidly becoming derelict.   

I love this picture of Alanna and Ian -- taken from the balconey.

This is when Lady Olive Baillie purchased the castle, and had it completely renovated.  Much of the Medieval vibe of the place is gone, but Ian and I had done a lot of Medieval lately, and all four of us agreed that it was neat to see a magnificent house, used only on weekends, looking just as it must have when shooting parties and movie stars were the flavour of the day.  

Classic cars at Leeds Castle.

This was reinforced when classic cars began arriving.  The gardens were fabulous.  Lady Baillie loved birds, and had black swans brought to the castle from Australia.  They travelled first class on airplanes, and have stayed here ever since as a symbol of the place.

Our drive brought us next into Canterbury, past the ancient city walls.

Before beginning our visit to the Cathedral, we stopped for a really good lunch – two of us having steak pie, and two of us having fish and chips.  Two of us had Kentish lager, and two had Kentish cider.  We all felt that we had ordered the best dish and the best drink.

We walked past the tower of the church where Christopher Marlowe was baptized  -- but the church itself was destroyed by bombs in WWII. 

It was a reminder that this whole area was in “bomb alley” where German pilots dropped any remaining bombs before heading home. 

Canterbury Cathedral was also damaged in the war, but is, of course, famous as the place of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket.  Henry II is supposed to have muttered, “Will no one relieve me of this turbulent priest?”  Four of his knights murdered Thomas, the Archbishop of Canterbury, right in the Cathedral.  Since I have been teaching the Canterbury Tales for years, and had to learn Middle English back at university to read them, it was another “bucket list” dream realized for me to visit this place.   

Just to make the experience perfect, the choir were practising throughout our visit, and we gladly traded the chance to visit the quire for the chance to hear the amazing music.

We saw the famous effigy of the Black Prince and the beautiful cloisters, and I got all emotional down in the crypt.  Henry the VII, living hundreds of years after St. Thomas a Becket, had the man legally tried when he established the Protestant Church.  He had St. Thomas’s shrine removed and his body destroyed.  Today a single candle burns where the shrine once stood.  The beauty of the place, and the history, and the choir music just made his attempt to destroy the saint’s memory seem futile.  Even more moving, to me, was a sculpture made from nails taken from the old roofing of the cathedral and shaped into a floating body above what had been the sepulchre of Thomas a Becket.

Soaring Gothic arches

The Black Prince

The Buff Chapel

The memorial to Thomas a Becket:  a single candle burns where his shrine once stood.

The Black Prince Again -- Ian's version.

The top of the Gothic Arches

A very short drive brought us to Dover Beach, right below the White Cliffs.   Kathleen led the way, and soon we had all dipped our hands in the English Channel.  

Kathleen on Dover Beach

Dover Castle

I now have two pebbles from Dover Beach, and we had a chance to take pictures of the famous Dover Castle.  

Alanna fell into a deep, deep sleep, as we drove into London, but woke up in time to get off the bus at Victoria Station.  We managed to snag tickets at the Box Office for Billy Elliot, which was wonderful, but left us with only minutes to get something to eat.  We ate dreadful Cornish Pasties and Sausage rolls, and tried to pretend to each other they were fine. 

I must admit that the first half of Billy Elliot, which was good, was not as good as the second half, as the people in front of us left at the interval.  Ian was dreadfully uncomfortable, and I am sure the very tall man in front of me was even more uncomfortable than Ian.  Being able to see both sides of the stage at once improved the show for me, and the young star was fabulous.  The dancing was truly spectacular.

K&A headed one way, and we headed the other, back to our hotel by way of the M&S sandwich shop.  It was a very long last full day of our holiday together, but a wonderful one, and I am very grateful for the miracle that has kept us both healthy and safe for a wonderful three weeks together.