Canterbury (15 March 2014)

After my visit to Stonehenge and Salisbury + Eastbourne, a friend, Severine, proposed a trip to visit Bath. However due to transportation conflicts, scheduling and prices, visiting Bath wouldn't be ideal for a day trip. Instead we thought Canterbury would be a viable option. Originally we wanted to go last Saturday (prior to 15 March 2014), but again transport issues to Canterbury that day.

We left our university halls at around 6:50am, shocking some of my flatmates actually at how early I left. We arrived around 10am? The whole train ride took less than 4 hours...I think? with a change at Ashford International station and so on. Severine had also suggested that we visit a nearby town in Kent, Whitstable (we didn't visit Whitstable though).

Canterbury is without a doubt one of the smaller English cities, that is possible to see as many main attractions within a day, with careful planning and navigation (we missed out on St Augustine's Abbey and the castle). It is also the home of the oldest cathedral in England, which was our main aim towards visiting Canterbury. At one point a person working for advertising or sign ups or boat your organisers, whatever they are called, asked us what we were doing in Canterbury, with the following dialogues exchanged among us:

Man: why are you in Canterbury?

Severine: just to visit the cathedral; our main priority.

Me: taking a break from law and reading. 

I think we spent a few minutes walking and navigating our way to cathedral, as the route or distance (that we took) is quite mid-far (???) to the cathedral.

Entrance to the cathedral

In the UK, cathedrals are mostly free, but I guess with the title of the 'oldest cathedral', free may not exist. Also in the UK, most attractions include students fee, avoiding to pay a higher entrance fee as adults! We paid about £???, which is quite pricey but as usual most historical attractions in UK are quite expensive. However sometimes it's nice to spend a few pounds on expensive entry attractions, and to understand the significance of the building itself.

Our visit coincide with a rehearsal, as on that night there was some sort of event, I can't remember what for but something; also that we were able to sit for awhile and watch them performing their rehearsals (I have a bit of their rehearsal right here sometime midway). Other than that the interior of the cathedral was beautiful, and it was quite easy for us to navigate our way inside unlike maybe other popular attractions (St Paul's cathedral in London?). There were several pictures that failed to appear when it got developed which I wish would have been successful! 

The crypt of the cathedral was the only place that photography wasn't permitted. Whilst there (and because pictures weren't permitted) Severine and I decided to make a 'prayer' via on the post it somewhere in the crypt, which I don't remember exactly what I 'prayed' for maybe for my exams and future success?

cathedral's garden (according to a leaflet, the 'herb garden')

And then we went outside to the cathedral's courtyard and the hallway. At one point I think we were about to exit the cathedral grounds via the garden/courtyard/whatever (precincts actually), and asked a security guard at a booth as to where was this place to end our trip exploring around and within the cathedral (the corridor with the very nice architectural designed ceiling lol) (the pictures of the corridor below).

Cathedral corridor

We decided to follow (more like eavesdrop) a suggestion made by one of the cathedral volunteers to make a trip to the University of Kent to capture a picture of the cityscape, or to get a picture of the cathedral in a different perspective...after all our main reason for visiting Canterbury was dedicated to the cathedral. 

I can't remember whether this was taken before we entered the university or whether it was on the uni grounds...?

This is for certain taken on the uni grounds

I find that most (all) of my pictures taken of the cityscape was disappointing... or maybe we didn't make an effort to walk more downwards maybe? I'm going to end my ramblings about my day in Canterbury here by just saying that post-capture-the-view-of-Canterbury we both decided to visit other attractions that included: St Martin's Church and St Augustine's Abbey. We didn't had the opportunity to visit the inside of St Martin's and St Augustine due to the closing times despite the compactness and close proximities of Canterbury,  but it was a nice day overall. 

St Martin's Church

The entrance (???) to the St Augustine Abbey

...Dane John gardens

on top of some hill feat. the cathedral

I guess we lacked planning out our entire trip despite catching the train really early, as the castle ruins (which was inconveniently situated with other new buildings) was closed (although we could see it albeit outside a gate). So we spent the rest of our time relaxing and sitting somewhere in the city centre, revisiting and taking more pictures of the cathedral.