I got up early as I wanted to have enough time at the city. Trains to canterbury go in every 20-30 minutes from Ashford International. Dad had things to do in twon so he took me to the station.
The return ticket cost £5,35.
I managed to catch the 8:05 train. The journey took about 20 minutes. Canterbury West, the station is very close to the town centre, so it was just a quick walk there.
When entering the city centre from the Rail Station the first things you see is the Tower Gate. The city used to be surrounded by more than ten of these, but for today only one has remained. When there was some serious city rebuilding in the 18th century the other towers were destroyed.
England is very famous for its gardens. Right next to the gate there is the Westgate Garden. It is very nice to take a walk in any garden and admire the nature:
After the garden my way led to and through the High Street, which is the main street of Canterbury. It is full of shops, English often travel there to do some shopping. It was quite quite in the morning and became very busy in the afternoon:
There are Guided Walking Tours available in the city, so I took one. It costs £7 (student concession). It is an about 90-minute long guided walk around the city centre with a local tourist guide. It is in English but if previously book it is available in other (main) foreign languages, too. Our group consisted of about 12 people from various countries: USA, the Neatherlands, Belgium, France and me from Hungary. We had an amazing and enthusiastic tourist guide whose language was very easy to understand as she is used to use a language which can ba understood by foreigners, too. She always explained special terminology when it was needed.
In order to buy the ticket I had to go to The Beaney House of Arts & Knowledge:
After the guided walk I visited the Canterbury Roman Museum for £7.20 (student concession). If you ever go to visit Canterbury do NOT waste any of your time going there. It is dedicated to show the Roman heritage of Canterbury, which is very important but unfortunately there is not so much about it to show. There is a big map there which shows how the city might have looked like in the Roman Time:
The only interesting thing in the museum is the fact that it is an underground museum, you have to go down about 10 metres to reach the museum. Why is that? In the Roman time the surface of the city was much lower than today. Buildings were built later on the top of the original surface. Inside the museum there is a place protected by glass windows where you can see the base of some former Roman buildings:
The next stop was, of course, the famous Canterbury Cathedral:
Unfortunately it is under construction, the renovations is going to be 5-year long, it has just started in this spring:
But, of course, during this time the cathedral can be visited. As you may know this cathedral is the centre of the English Anglican Church (not the Westminster Abbey). In England there are only two archbishops: one in Canterbury and one in York. And, of course, the head of the Church is the all-time monarch of the UK, so currently Queen Elizabeth II.
Entrance into the church costs £10.50 (student concession).
The cathedral or rather the tower of it is like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. You can see it from almost everywhere in the city:
Again, the garden around the Cathedral is just amazing:
Inside the church I got the audio guide because otherwise it would have been very difficult to get to know the church. It cost £3 (student concession) and again, available not also in English but in the main European languages. It was extremly easy to use, you use the machine like a phone, you follow the map and when you get to the next point, you press the appropriate number on the phone. You can also pause it and listen to it again if you wish:
Some pictures form the inside of the church:
The nave:
The throne of the archbishop made from stone:
The Quire:
It is the place in a church where the so called Evensong takes place. Evensong is actually a service, takes about 50 minutes and most of it is sang, there are only two short readings.
Normally it is closed from tourists but you can sit there during the Evensong, which is a geat privilege for tourists. I had the opportunity to attend the Evensong on Saturday, so here are some photos taken secretly (beacuse it is not allowed to take photos then):
Everybody gets a leaflet of the Evensong which tells you the steps after each other, what will happen and what you should do, like stand, sit, say...
Each visitor can use during the service the following books:
The Evensong is sung by a choir, which consists of 1/3 adult men adn 2/3 young boys. The songs are like they were sung by girls because of the high number of young boys.
Actually, to be honest, it reminds me more of a noise than of songs but that might be just my opinion:
If you have the nerves listen to it:
The Martyrdom where the famous Thomas Becket was killed:
The Cloister:
Inside the Chapter House:
When I first visited the Cathedral in 2011 we had an amazing tourist guide who knew every single little place inside the church. She showed us then a special place which I was looking for the whole time inside the chatedral. I was so disaapointed that I cannot find it. And then, when I was about 10 steps away from the exit I found it! I was so happy! It is nothing special, really, but still I wanted to find it. When cathedrals so big was being built, it took always a lot of time. Si sometimes it happened that through the years the style changed. This picture is a good example for that. That's what I was looking for:
And here are some of my favourite pictures of my day in Canterbury:
With the oldest house in the city in the background:
Again, a photo taken secretely:
How much did the trip cost altogether?
£34.45 which equals about 12.000 Ft. (without any food, drink or presents bought)
