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Sunday, May 23, 2010

Creepy Canterbury



Busy Canterbury Street


[22 May 2010]  It's weekend again and off we go to Canterbury, the home of Geoffrey Chaucer's famous Canterbury Tales.  Primarily, we will visit the Canterbury Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the oldest church in England.


Street Piper:

Cathedral's Facade:


We actually had to pay for a "donation fee" of 8 pounds/pax to get into the Cathedral.  It has an impressive architecture as shown in the intricate details of every corner of the Church. 


Cathedral's Facade
Exterior View of the Canterbury Cathedral
Side View
The Tower


Inside, the Cathedral is even bigger that we thought of.  The place is actually quite scary because there are times when our feet took us to areas where we are separated from other tourists and lost our way inside the Church.  Imagine being inside an old, huge cathedral... with many tombs around you... a deafening silence feeling only the cold breeze from the stone walls that surrounds you...  Creepy!!!


The 12th Century Quire
Our clip inside the Quire:


The Cathedral's impressive stained glass window

A&R at the Great Cloister
The ornate roof bosses representing a rich array of late medieval English heraldry
surrounded by tombstones from people associated with the Cathedral's history.


The Cathedral also has  a large crypt that was built in 1093.  A crypt is a a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a church.  It is the most respected place in the Cathedral that is why taking pictures while you are inside it is strictly prohibited.  For the Canterbury Cathedral, the crypt was originally a secret or hidden place in which the early Christians buried their saints and martyrs.  It was very dark inside the crypt as it is only lighted by candles. Scary again!

Finally, our Cathedral tour is over and we went outside to see the High Street.  Due to my kakuriputan, we didn't joined the famous 
Canterbury River Tour where you'll get to tour around medieval sites of the city through the River Stour riding in a small wooden boat.  At night, these tour turns into a haunted river tour as it was said that many ghosts are still sighted in the city until today due to its dark medieval history.  Goosebumps...

The Canterbury River Tour
Pretty sights around:





It was already late in the afternoon when we finished roaming around the place.  Our last stop was St. Augustine's Abbey, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. 
St. Augustine's Abbey
Finally, we ended wrapping-up our adventurous day eating at McDonalds. ◄ ►
Rowsie at Canterbury ☺
Alvin at Canterbury ☺

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