Dover and Canterbury

The day after my trip to Oxford, I went with a group from ISH (International Student House, where I'm staying for the semester) to the White Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury. Dover was beautiful, but it was so cold and windy. It started to snow, but it was so windy that the snow flakes pelted your face as you were walking. Oh well, it can't always be sunny and 50'! The coolest part of the Dover Castle I couldn't take pictures in, sorry! There are secret tunnels that go about 1/4 mile underground that were used in WWII in as headquarters for a huge rescue mission to rescue British and French soldiers from France. It was really eery being able to go into the tunnels. Today they're still military owned, so therefore high security and we couldn't take pictures. The castle was beautiful! I don't think I've been to a medieval castle that big and that well preserved. And then last but not least was Canterbury. Since I've been in England, I've had the opportunity to visit many many cathedrals. Of all of them, even Notre Dame in Paris, Canterbury Cathedral has been my absolute favorite. There was something so warm and soothing I felt inside Canterbury that was lacking in all the others. Canterbury was fairly large too, so it wasn't because it was small. Around the Cathedral were a bunch of little shops. It reminded me a lot of Door County. I easily could have spent a whole day there! Here are the pictures:

I can only imagine how busy this has to be during the summer months!

Can you see France??

Dover Castle

Looking down at Dover and Dover Beach

As much as the snow hurt and was cold, it was just as pretty.

We had this great idea to climb to the top of the tower - it was colder and windier up there then on the ground (duh!) so we took our pictures and within five minutes we were back on the ground :)

Looking down at Dover Beach from the Catle. After listening to the tour of the WWII tunnels, I can only imagine the huge ships bringing in 100,000s of soldiers who just scatter all over the beach with the German bombers shooting down. What a time that must have been.

So steep and slippery, I think everyone slipped at least once going back down!

Entrance to the Canterbury Cathedral

So beautiful!

This is the area where Thomas Becket is thought to have been assassinated in the year  1170 AD. He was murdered by King Henry II's kinghts. Apparently Henry had said "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" Four of his knights thought this was a royal order and went and murdered St. Thomas of Canterbury. When Henry II found out about the assassination, he felt so remorseful that he began a spree of building churches and donating to ones already established. He publicly penanced at Thomas' tomb. His tomb later became a site for mass pilgrimage.

The site of where St. Thomas' shrine was until it was destroyed in 1538 during the reformation, when Henry VIII separated himself from the Catholic Church so he could divorce his wife Catherine of Spain. The reformation is also called the Dissolution of the Monasteries  where all jewels and gold - basically anything of worth - in catholic places of worship were either stollen or demolished.