17 Dec 2011 - Canterbury, Kent

Frosty Canterbury

8:22 am. We took the South Eastern train from Victoria to Canterbury East, a 1.5 hour ride, into south east of England into Canterbury, the mecca of the church of England in Kent.

Canterybury Cathedral as seen from near the train station

This was one of the coldest day of our visit ( -1 C ) , and road surface and plants were covered with a layer of frost. Luckily I packed beanies and gloves, which made our walking in the frigid cold slightly bearable. The cold would have set our visit plans awry had it not been for prior  tips from TA advisors, who suggested that the most efficient way to the famous Cathedral is to cross the overhead bridge immediately outside the station and walk along the city walls flanking Dane John Gardens.

Canterbury was bustling with activities , with the morning market ( my favorite kind of place ) rand shopping malls in full swing. We  saw  a group of carolers signing carols outside the Cathedral.

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Man of sorrow in the crypt

Admission to the Cathedral was quite costly , at almost 30 GBP for us. The Cathedral grounds was a far cry for the weekend madness,  a place of total tranquil peace and quiet. We spent almost 2 hours in the Cathedral and erudite curators gave history lessons. We saw the place where Thomas Beckett was murdered and indirectly caused the reconciliation between state and church by King Henry II. The crypt was just as interesting, and I spied a tomb deprived of heads of its cherubims and angels because the Protestant government then was clearing the church of graven images, as according to the second commandment.

Scones at Tiny Tim's

We left the very handsome church and walked over to St Margaret St for tea cum lunch at Tiny Tim's Tearoom . Pat had the ploughman's lunch, which a huge piece of cheddar and H had a similar plate of Leicester cheese burger. I had the traditional tea sandwiches, which I must admit tasted very much as they look. Still, it was a big meal and a happy one with tea, scones and pudding. That was how serious we were to combine tea and lunch in one go.

Canterbury calls it a day.

After lunch, we walked around town, which was very small. By 4 pm, the overbearing cold was too much for us and we decided to call it a day and caught a train back to London.