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.
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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.
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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.
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Soaring Gothic arches |
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The Black Prince |
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The Buff Chapel |
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The memorial to Thomas a Becket: a single candle burns where his shrine once stood. |
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The Black Prince Again -- Ian's version. |
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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.
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Kathleen on Dover Beach |
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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.
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