Canterbury Tales

Caitlin and I decided to spend her last day in England in Canterbury so we woke up early, made a nice breakfast, and took a train there. The town itself was moderately quaint, but also touristy and at some times, metropolitan. The main thing to see there was Canterbury Cathedral.


I couldn't get the entire cathedral in the picture... but believe me when I say that it was even more beautiful and impressive in person!

When we went into the cathedral, we happened upon the beginnings of a choir practice. There was a performance of Handel's Messiah scheduled for that night, so they were doing a full run through. Caitlin and I decided to watch them for about a half hour -- BEST DECISION EVER.


How many people can say that they've performed (let alone practiced) in such a beautiful place? I was floored. The sound was amazing (and I'm sure the brilliant acoustics helped). It was probably the best choir I've ever heard live. The soloists were phenomenal... I got chills at least 2 or 3 times.


I love this picture of us. See how happy we were to sit and listen to the choir? =)


The detail inside of the cathedral was amazing. This doorway lead to another chapel and (I think) a practice room.

We wandered around the rest of the Cathedral, looking in the maze of chapels they had downstairs. They also had a display of 14th-18th century artifacts from the church, which I found really interesting. There was an old septre, lots of silver goblets, and a few ancient Bibles. I love seeing old artifacts like that.

We ended up spending more time in the cathedral than we had expected, so we grabbed dinner at a pasty shop (side note: I'm going to miss pasties soooo much in the states! It's like a hot pocket, but a million times better and much more fresh). We wanted to go to

The two of us wanted to make it to St. Augustine's Abbey and a few of the other local attractions, but most everything was closed by the time we finished with dinner, nothing was open. Instead, we window shopped and walked around the town. I ended up buying a pretty green and gold scarf. It's shiny, so that explains a lot of my love. ;)

We headed back to London that night and spent the evening talking and looking at pictures from her trip to Paris. Early the next morning, Caitlin left for LA and took the wonderful California weather with her. It was great to have her company over those few days. =)