Leeds Castle

Our final day together is at Leeds Castle in Kent, just a short drive from Canterbury. Already we have said farewell to Peter, Judy and Marcus in Paris, now we say goodbye to Hume, Paul and Helen as they set off very early for London. Ruth decides not to join us for the excursion, so she remains at the hotel in order to prepare for her trip to York.

We enjoy our guided tour of the castle with our local guide, Ali, she is a delight and like our other guides throughout the trip, very knowledgable and helpful. We have time to visit the magnificient castle gardens but most of us spend precious time in the warm cafe away from the biting wind.

We say goodbye to Laureen who is off to Perth, Jim and Jenny off to Ireland all flying out of Heathrow. The remaining pilgrims press on to Gatwick airport. We swing by the railway station at Maidstone to enable Rebecca and Tig to catch a fast train to London, they will spend a few days in the capital and attend a family wedding before returning home. Steve, Raylene and Di are hiring a car and travelling in the south of England, Robert and Jill also are soon at the car hire counter alongside Ray, Glenys, Robyn and Hilary. The latter group are going to share a holiday together in Cornwall, the former are not travelling far, catching up with family- Robert's brother tomorrow celebrating his birthday and then their son in Windsor.

We leave Robert and Jillian on the coach who alone are making the Emirates flight out of Gatwick at 9.20pm tonight, they will be stopping over at Dubai for a couple of days. It has been a wonderful pilgrimage and a fabulous group of people who have cared for one another and enjoyed each others company. Most of us will be looking forward to some time out after our busy schedule.

            Scenes around Leeds Castle

Canterbury Tales - 2015

A full English breakfast is always a great start to the day, we have a big program of events so we will need plenty of stamina. It's a fair walk from our beautiful lodgings outside the town centre of Canterbury to the Cathedral, we are off to explore the ancient church by guided tour. We are broken into two groups and agree to meet outside the Anselm Chapel to connect with the Director of Choristers and Cathedral Organist, Dr David Flood. Our guides tell the story of the growth of Christianity in this place from the mission of St Augustine and his group of 40 monks in 597 AD. We hear of the murder of St Thomas a'Becket, the grizzly story that comes alive in this place. We enter the Crypt to explore the oldest parts of the building some dating back to medieval time.

We are on a mission ourselves to find memorials of three Archbishops - Anselm, Crichele and Mepham. Although Judy Read is no longer with our group we promised to find the memorial for her ancestor, Archbishop Henry Crichele, which turns out to be elaborate and quite spectacular. Hilary Viney is on the lookout for her ancestor Archbishop Simon Mepham and his tomb is found, much to our amazement, right there along the wall of the St Anselm Chapel. St Anselm has been our focus for the last sixteen days and it is good for the pilgrims to finally step ino the little chapel where his body lay under the ancient stones. A modern marble altar stands as the focus of the chapel, it was given in recent years by the Archbishop of Aosta, Anselm's birthplace, and we will learn more about it when we meet Canon Chris Irvine later in the day. The Chapel also contains some modern depictions, in stained glass, of Anselm and his contemporaries.

We meet Dr David Flood and begin our second guided tour, this time focusing on the organs, choristers and music of the Cathedral. David has been in his role since 1988 and he expresses enormous enthusiasm for the work he does and for the projects still at hand, particularly a massive rebuild of the cathedral organ. He takes us to the organ loft where we have a most amazing and commanding view of the whole Cathedral building. We are privileged to hear him play and demonstrate the qualities of the present organ. Robert Heatley, who has organised this part of the tour, is in his element, loving every minute. We are taken to the nave where David plays the smaller nave organ and we gather on the steps of the chancel for a group photo.

Time now for a bit of lunch and to explore Canterbury in the sunshine before our next appointment with  Canon Chris Irvine who is the Diocesan Education Officer. Chris leads us back to the St Anselm Chapel and focuses his talk on the modern marble altar, which we learn is the work of Stephen Cox and the remakable fact that the hill like shapes and snow capped mountains abstracted in the marble were a surprise even to the artist, but are so like the view we had from our hotel to the mountains across the road when we began this pilgrimage back in Aosta.

We have just a little bit of time to shop or take coffee or explore the Cathedral and the town before Evensong and it is a delight to see Dr Flood, Canon Irvine and the boys and men of the Cathedral Choir all in action. It is Monday night and the Quire is full of visitors including our group. We return to our hotel for a final eucharist, a freshen up and then off to dinner at Thomas Beckett Pub. The pilgrims have completed their journey and have plenty of tales to tell of their journey to Canterbury.