Dover and Canterbury

We made our first day trip to Dover and Canterbury last week, and what a wonderful trip it was! After a few hours on the coach, we pulled up to Dover and I marveled at the beauty of the white cliffs with the castle set upon them. This was my first time ever visiting a castle and it was so interesting! It was crazy to think that this structure that was hundreds of years old was once used as a fortress; I could have been standing where kings had stood many years before. I could feel that there was so much history within the walls. Oh how I wished those walls could talk; to think of the stories they would tell! An actor posed as the king and demonstrated what it would have been like to be a visitor to the castle back in medieval times, and brought it all to life. After visiting the castle, we drove down to the beach and walked along the pier and sat on the rocky sand (if you can call it sand).

Our next adventure on the trip was Canterbury. We made our own little pilgrimage to Canterbury and visited the cathedral, where the archbishop of Canterbury (head of the Church of England) resides. It was so neat to be in such a famous and historically rich building. The architecture was gorgeous! It was so fun to see the layers of history being built on each other, from Romanesque with the low arches and small windows to Gothic with the rib vaults and beautiful large stained-glass windows. I have learned about the architecture in cathedrals and this was the first time seeing a real example with my own eyes. It was so exciting! My tour guide showed us around the entire cathedral and taught me loads about the history of Canterbury, Thomas Beckett, the Puritans, and so much more. Visiting Canterbury made me very excited to tour other cathedrals throughout Europe and gain more knowledge!