Day 2 - Canterbury Bound

West Towers

After a quasi-adequate's night sleep, we caught the 10:08 am train to Canterbury.  The hour-long southeasterly trek took us through the rolling, bucolic Kent countryside, small villages, and fields of grazing sheep.  Before we knew it, we pulled into Canterbury West station.Out came our map and directions to our Airbnb flat, 'home' for the next four days.

We approached the ancient Roman city walls from the west and entered town proper through the Westgate Towers which have stood over the road to London for six centuries.

Buttermarket - Our Flat Top Right Building

Our host, Roy, met us at Buttermarket House, above which is our two-bedroom flat and compared to our accommodations in London, this place is a palace!

Cathedral Gate

Just a few steps from our front door, Cathedral Gate stands tall across High Street. After a quick settle-in we set off to explore and headed in the opposite direction from which we arrived.

St. Augustine's Abbey Ruins

Before we knew it, we had exited town proper through Burgate and found ourselves wandering outside St. Augustine's Abbey, now part of a UNESCO site. In the 6th century, St. Augustine, a poor monk, was dispatched from Rome to bring Christianity to the pagan Anglo-Saxons. He and his followers first worshipped in St. Martin's Church, England's oldest working church, part of which was built by the Romans in 397 A.D.

St. Martin's Gate

St. Martin's Front View

St. Martin's Entance

In the 6th century, the great grandaughter of Clovis I, Bertha, traveled from Frankia to Kent to marry the pagan King Aethelbert and cannonized for being instrumental in bringing Chirstianity to England.

As you view the church from the nave facing toward the back in the picture below, toward the bottom right you can just make out a bright spot about the backs of the pews.  That little bright spot is actually a small hole in the masonry through which the lepers were allowed to view/hear mass! 

View Toward Nave

Backw/Leper's Window

Cafe Rouge

After our trek to St. Martin's, we headed back to town to grab a late lunch at Cafe Rouge.  Since it was a French cafe, I ordered their Croque Monsieur and Mary sampled their 'tarte', a butternut squash savory version accompanied by a glass of wine. Alas, again, no food pictures.  How remiss of me!



By this time, around 4:30, it was beginning to get dark and we wandered over to the Cathedral hoping to savor a bit of spiritual solitude. We discovered the Cathedral was locked up for the night except for one entrance admitting the faithful for evening vespers. However, the nighttime ambiance was sublime!  The size of the Catherdral is daunting even by today's standards.  One can only imagine how impressive it must have appeared to the pilgrims who had travelled from such distances to make their obeisance there.

Canterbury Cathedral 

Canterbury Cathedral