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Canterbury, Kent, England, continued
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| On our way into town every day we passed the ruins of Canterbury Castle. A drawing at the site showed the very early castle. | The facing stones are gone and the walls have crumbled, but even this pile of rubble has majesty. |
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| The original interior stone steps were replaced with safer cement ones, making it possible for us to get into what remained of the castle walls. | Inside the wall, Bob views the bailey below. |
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| Here's what he saw. Another door on the lower right leads to another portion of the inner wall. | Chaucer's Canterbury might have looked something like this. Once weavers were housed here. The building, now a restaurant, runs along the River Stour. |
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We went though the half-timbered building above, then through their garden dining along the river, to get to a boat tour.
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Looking back, we can see the side of the half-timbered restaurant building. |
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| Now we see it closer as we boat up the shallow, placid river. John is our oarsman and guide. | Does it look like John will hit his head? Yes. We all had to bend 'way donw to get under the bridge. |
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| This was once a "hospital." Hospital then meant a place of cheap or free hospitality. Monks and pilgrims rested here. | We had to bend almost double to get under the former hospital. |
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| At the edge of town we pass quiet gardens and religious buildings. | A costumed girl pulled us into this restaurant one day. We had a lunch of medieval soup and heavy bread that was delicious. The walls inside are decorated with large framed lithos from the Canterbury Tales. |
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| On the boat trip, John told us how to get to a chapel that was a bridge over the Stour. We strolled through lawns and gardes where once a monastery stood. | The parkland was beautifully kept up. |
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| Only the chapel remains from the monastery. It was kept up because in its time it was the only bridge over the Stour. | People went in this door, through a hall, and out on the other side of the river. |
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The chapel still has a room with an altar and a few chairs. Services are held there every Wednesday at noon. Votive candles burn there all the time.
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We came across this bridge to the parkland and the chapel. A single Benedictine monk lives there. He fills the symbolic role of caring for the Order's lands.
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