Today was our first day trip. We first went to the town of Canterbury. This was such a cute town and had soo much history. First we went to the ruins of St. Augustine. There was a big cathedral here, but when King Henry VII came into power he organized the Church of England and decided to get rid of all the cathedrals that might be considered Roman Catholic. This was called dissolution. It is so sad to think of all the things that have been destroyed from this. Jane Austen wrote of this saying, "King Henry VIII is going to beautify England with many great ruins." She was being ironic of course, and I'm not sure if that is the exact quote, but it's close enough!
Next in Canterbury we went to the Cathedral that is there now. It was so incredible. The ceilings are so amazing. There is a story in this cathedral about a man named Thomas Becket. He was the arch bishop there hundreds of years ago, and he got on the bad side of the King at the time. It was over whether the king had power over the church or if the church was independent. So long story short, the king sends 4 knights to Canterbury to kill Thomas Becket. They find him in the cathedral and kill him in his own cathedral. Then people would pilgrimage here from all over to come see then now St. Thomas's remains and in hope of miracles.
This is the monument to St. Thomas Becket
Next, after leaving Canterbury, we went off to the town of Cambridge, home of Cambridge University. It was a way cool town. It felt like an old time town and was surrounded by this moat. The college has been there for 800 years! How crazy is that?? When we got there we wanted to go see King's College or Trinity College, which are the most famous, but they were closed! So we went to their museum and went into another smaller college, and looked in shops in the town. Then our professor found us and told us that there is a service done in King's College Cathedral with the boy's choir so we went to that. It was so amazing! They sounded so perfect, and in the cathedral with all the acoustics, it was incredible! These boys were about 8 years to teenagers and live at the college. They do these services two time a day! It was so great. My favorite song they sang was "Santa Maria," it was absolutely beautiful.
Kings College L to R: Laura, Laura, Me, Lauren, Hilary
The moat around Cambridge. You can rent those little boats and go "punting"
The Cathedral at King's College
Us in front of King's College...when it was closed.
3 comments:
Best day ever, especially when the air vent started sucking up my hair... Blue mascara plus crimped hair equals clubbing in london. xo
Ali, it looks so fun! Glad you are having a marvelous time. And I enjoy the bit of history to go along with the pics!
Ali-
That's not a moat....that's the River Cam (hence Cambridge) :)
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