Canterbury

Today the pilgrims are off to our destination and the centre of England's spirituality- Canterbury. Unlike our hero Anselm we are making the journey from the Continent via Eurostar at around 250 kph!

We have a quick bus trip to Gare du Nord (Paris), leaving Judy and Peter at the hotel, they will be continuing their holiday in Holland and Germany in coming days. Marcus has also left the group and returned to Switzerland for work. 

So the remaining 20 in the group say farewell to Pernille our wonderful French Guide and check in and do the immigration, border control. Soon we are smoothly rolling and several pilgrims are able take a nap, others read or play cards. The journey to Ashford International takes just two hours, but with the time zone adjustment it's 11am as we make our way out of the station.

We meet our coach and enjoy a 30 minute drive to our hotel in misty rain, hopefully the weather will clear and as we enter the outskirts of the city the sun breaks through and the driver turns off the windscreen wipers. We are too early to check in to our rooms but a complimentary drink resolves any of our concerns. We head for the town centre and a bite to eat.

Evensong is at 3.15pm so there is a bit of time to explore the Cathedral grounds before the Service. There are about 300 people at the Service and our group receives a special welcome from the Dean at the beginning. To quote Hume "the music is simply stunning" the organ and choir lead us in a most memorable way. The misty rain is returning so we agree that this is a good time to visit the Canterbury Tales attraction, a simple but graphic depiction of Chaucer's stories about pilgrims making their way to Canterbury in the early 1300s. It's a bit of fun and by the time we are finished the rain has gone. It's now time to return to our hotel Abbot's Barton about a 10 minute walk away to settle into our rooms before dinner.

Dinner is at Parrot Pub, the oldest pub in the town dating back to the Chaucer era. We have a large table and the whole upper floor in this incredible medieval building, even the food on the table slides a bit, such is the slope on the floor. Most of us enjoy a two or three course meal and sample the local refreshments. It's been sixteen days of solid travel, lots of tales to tell on our pilgrimage, and tomorrow we will focus on being in Canterbury.