Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the head of the Church of England. This is the same Canterbury of Chaucer's Canterbury tales, where the pilgrims are headed. This Cathedral is by far the biggest I have ever seen. It had to be expanded in order to accommodate all the pilgrims coming to the shrine of Thomas A Becket. He was the Archbishop during the time of Henry II. Henry helped him succeed, so Henry though that Beckett would be more helpful, but Becket was more loyal to the church than to his old friend. After years of arguing and an exile, Becket was still frustrating Henry. Apparently Henry said something to the effect of "Will nobody rid me of this meddlesome priest?!" Four helpful knights took him at his word and infiltrated the cathedral where Becket was worshiping. They brutally murdered him while he prayed at the altar, refusing to run or fight back. While his shrine is gone, you can still see the place where he died.
This is the place where Becket was praying when he died.
You have to be pretty wealthy to be buried inside the Cathedral. To have a statue is particularly special. It is usually only nobility and bishops. Whoever this guy was , he must have aspired to be a model. I now call these poses my "Canterbury moments."
We felt a little Hogwarts pride when we walked in here...
The cathedral cat. Most churches and cathedrals have cats that wander around the town freely but shelter and eat in the church. They sort of become mascots. I think they are just strays that adopt the churches for shelter, but nobody tries to keep them out--in fact, you often find their water bowls tucked away in a corner. This cat was making his appearance in a Canterbury gift shop, which also sold pictures and stuffed animals of said cat.
With a little extra time, we wandered into a shop and Erica found this darling dress that reminded me of the one in the live-action Cinderella. I felt like a fairy princess and didn't want to take it off!
I saw this in a gift shop. I'm sure our cat wishes he had this sign...
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