Day 124: Dover to Canterbury, UK (and back): Grampies' Canterbury Tales

September 20, 2012

We had learned in the Spring that you can’t just get on a bike and head off for a distant city in England. The regular roads are too dangerous for that. But if you are able to follow a national cycle route, you have a chance. We found a cycle route map for Kent in our stuff, and with that had the courage to head off for Canterbury.

We were able to find the national route 16 at the top of Castle Road, and it was not too long that this directed us onto a series of country lanes and small roads. We had been down on cycling in England, but our attitude softened when we once again found ourselves in the beautiful countryside, passing quaint villages and lovely fields.

The cycling signage was pretty good, but it did succeed in falling apart a few times. It did the standard tricks: crossroads with no sign, sign hidden in the foliage, sign with ambiguous arrow, sign hiding on the other side of the road, etc. However, we were up to the challenge (using our secret weapons: map and GPS).

St Martins guesthouse as we set off up castle hill

You have to climb up out of the harbour before getting into the fields of Kent

We actually had a benefit from the signage weaknesses. Because of them, we sailed (incorrectly) into the village of Whitfield and ran into a market going on in the village hall. The market was very quiet, but was a wonderful slice of small village life. There were vendors with used books, with jewellery, and such, and also a fair number of food vendors. The food vendors included bake sale type baking, but also a professional baker, a butcher, and a greengrocer. The professional baking was very plain, but we did buy two Cornish pasties that turned out to be excellent. The bake sale provided some bake sale standard cupcakes. The butcher was interesting, because the (packages) meat products were just set out on a table. Without refrigeration and all sorts of other approvals, this would never fly in Canada. I am sure it was fine.

One of the tables was that of Patricia Deveson, a great grandmother quilt maker. She had one that seemed perfect for a new baby, with lacy bits and the words “la petite jolie fleur”, plus a knitted pussycat on the lacy included pillow. Too bulky, of course, to carry on the bikes, but we easily arranged to have her mail it to Montreal. Hopefully it will arrive at the same time as the new grand baby!

Oh, oh, we need to get to Montreal, quick!

Rabbit, duck, and deer. Just out on a table.

The quilt that will be mailed for new baby

The countryside is still beautiful, but not super green like in Spring

Adisham church. Adisham was also the scene of a Dr Who episode in which martians invaded.

When we entered Canterbury we came first not to the cathedral but to St Martin’s church. St Martin’s is the oldest church in continuous use in the English speaking world. This church was already old when Augustine came to Canterbury in 597 a.d. In 580 it was set up as a church in a former Roman building, for the Christian wife of the king of Kent.

The church itself is very unassuming, and of course is not all original 597. Rather the pews and stained glass seem to be Victorian. In the churchyard there are at least 900 graves, with the oldest readable one being from 1686.

Canterbury Cathedral itself is in the centre of town, but not on the model of the European churches and cathedrals. In those cases, the church/cathedral fronts a square, usually a market square, and that square is the commercial and social centre of the town. Canterbury, though, is walled in by its own auxiliary buildings, and the compound is accessed through an elaborate gate. The commercial town is outside the gate. It took 8 ½ pounds each to get us through the gate, another contrast with the freely visitable Catholic churches on the continent.

The cathedral started off by not impressing us on three counts, though we found a lot to appreciate after that.

The first strike was that it appeared smaller than, for example, Koln Cathedral. That turned out to be only because you can not immediately see the whole thing when you first walk in. In fact, its entirety is huge.

The second strike was that not only do they want to sell you stuff at the gate and just inside the gate, but that there is a quite large display of trinkets and junk souvenirs for sale right inside, and directly in front of the chapel and tomb of one of the archbishops.

The third strike was that along two walls were elaborate memorials to mostly military figures. The cathedral in general is filled with effigies and tombs of archbishops and suchlike. The effect was one of glorification of the military and the clergy. Little was to be seen that could be said to be glorifying God, Naively, we would have thought that that is the main official purpose of places like this.

The cathedral earned our esteem, though, as we walked deeper into it. The most impressive area for stained glass and overall design in not the Nave, where we entered, but the Quire, the so called Trinity Chapel, and the “Corona”, at the east end. Most impressive in its own way was the Crypt in the “basement”. Here particularly you could feel the immense age and gravity of the place.

Unlike Catholic buildings, the decoration of Canterbury is not flamboyant. Dodie characterized it as dour, and said it did not seem the people behind this had much joy in their religion.

We bought a pile of guidebooks for the Cathedral, but did not have time to either read them or even walk around much. When we get home we will read these and say, “Oh, that’s what that was!”

A quick walk though the town and we were almost ready to be off . We grabbed two scones and some fudge from downtown shops, and hoped this would do us until we would be back in Dover.

We left Canterbury after 4:30, but made good time since we remembered most of the tricks with the signage. Still, night fell before we were back to Dover. We used our powerful bike lights and carried on. One light ran out of power, but we were not too worried, because we still could use our headlights if necessary. On the other hand, here we were making our way along pitch black little lanes (so pleasant in the day), with failing lights and a history of not finding all the signs, even in broad daylight.

It was a bit hairy, and we were thinking good thing we brought our rain gear, because with that we would be ok if we spent a night out, or slowly walking back in the dark.

We were really pleased when finally we came to the top of Castle Road, with Dover Castle lit up above us. Even more pleasing was St Martin’s guest house, with its lights brightly on. From there before too long we were back in the pub, where it was Curry Night, congratulating ourselves on surviving our latest folly!

The story of St Martins church in Canterbury

A gravestone in the church yard, from 1744

An Anglican form of papal dispensations?

Dodie talks with an 87 year old volunteer.

Many effigy tombs like this are all around

Two walls have military memorials like this

Looking into the east end of the cathedral

The Thomas Beckett assassination spot. This archbishop was done in by knights of Henry II. One of the knights' sword points broke on the stone floor. Pictured is the Altar of the Sword's Point.

An example of the stained glass in the cathedral. There is a book on offer just about the cathedral stained glass.

ABOUT CHRISTIANS AND DRAGONS

Way back when Dodie and I were at McGill University we met a young priest, John Kater, who was there to study for his Doctor of Divinity degree. Not only did John graduate, but he went on to be a recognized religious scholar.

On this trip we ran in to quite a few examples of dragons associated with Christian churches. In Germany, there is Siegfried and the Dragon, in Netherlands and England - George and the Dragon, and in one church there as an image of Christ and a Dragon.

So we put it to John: "Do Christians officially believe in dragons?"

Here is John's reply: I don't think you would find any Christians who believe in dragons, at least not in any part of the world we are likely to be in. Actually the dragon is a symbolic version of Satan or the devil, and is ultimately from Jewish mythology which also described Satan as a serpent (story of Adam and Eve) and it was a short hop from snake to dragon. The book of Revelation actually describes Satan as "that old dragon". George was reported to have killed a real dragon, which was conceived (I think) as a force of evil and danger ultimately emanating from the devil. Most contemporary Christians, I think, would agree with rabbinic Judaism that evil is "ha yetzer hara" (sp?) -- a force for evil rather than personalizing it as Satan much less a dragon. But there are plenty of fundamentalists who think of evil as a real "being" that we should be watching out for.

OTHER ANIMALS WE MET TODAY

Today's ride: 78 km (48 miles)
Total: 6,574 km (4,082 miles)

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