Canterbury Tales

Have you ever read Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales? If you haven't, how about the movie A Knight's Tale? Either way, guess what I did last week: I lived the Canterbury Tales. Well, I visited Canterbury at least! It's a cute, quaint little town that makes you feel like you've traveled back into Chaucer's stories, it's awesome.

First we stopped at St. Augustine's Abbey, or at least the ruins of what it once was.

I grew tired of waiting for all the girls to finish taking their model shots in front of the Abbey, so I laid down on a bench and actually found some pretty cool looking things through a hole in the wall.

Yes, we came all the way to London, and I was spending my time looking at rocks and flowers.

These are some of the old houses of Canterbury. If London hadn't burned down so many times, this is what it would look like.

And of course Canterbury Cathedral!

Below is Thomas Beckett, the whole reason people came to Canterbury back in Chaucer's time. In fact, the 29 travelers in his tale are all on a pilgrimage to Canterbury to see the relics of Beckett. Beckett was killed here in Canterbury Cathedral because he would not give into the government over the church. I won't go into detail, but it was a pretty horrific story. His relics are associated with all sorts of miracles, and so after his death pilgrims came from everywhere to see them. If you look closely, you can see a sword coming out of the side of his head (not a pretty story).

And this is the spot where the murder occurred--it actually does have a very cool feeling being in that area of the cathedral. They light a candle here to remember his martyrdom and sacrifice.