CANTERBURY:
During our third week we went on a day trip to Canterbury, one of my favorite places in the world! We began with a walking tour of the city and then went into the Cathedral. Canterbury is an important city for pilgrimages dating back to the time of King Henry II. It is where Thomas a Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury and good friend of Henry II was murdered by four of the King's knights believing that Henry wanted him dead. It then became a center where pilgrims from around England came to pray and worship. One of these pilgrimages is depicted in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It was also settled by the Romans. It truly is a magical place!
One of the entrance gates to the old city.
The entrance gate to the Cathedral.
The Christ-figure that won the contest to replace the original that was destroyed.
Notice the rose and gate that we saw in Cambridge. Tudor symbols.
Students waiting for me to hand out tickets to get into the Cathedral after their walking tour of the city.
The Cathedral.
Fan vaulted ceilings
The Stained Glass. Some of the oldest in the world.
The podium.
A fresco.
Well worn stairs.
Beckett's newer Shrine
The Crypt
Black Prince's Armour
A Bishop's Tomb
The Cloisters
Kenny in awe!
The Chapter House
The Ceiling
Chapel to the Armed Services
Classes from King's School getting out!
Random interesting gentleman on a bench!
A new statue that was dedicated by the Queen of Denmark when we were there. The Cathedral was closed until 2 pm that day.
Butter Market .
Notice how the floors above the ground floor get bigger and over hang. Many of the buildings are like this. The reason the ground floor is smaller is because one paid taxes on the square footage of the ground floor: hence, it was very advantageous to have larger upper floors.
One of my favorite houses in Canterbury. It is very crooked and still standing.
Other interesting buildings in Canterbury.
Notice the dunking chair at the end of the building. If one's wife was constantly nagging, one could have her dunked in the water (which wasn't clean and loaded with sewage at the time) and that would guarantee that she would stop nagging!!!!!!
Even Spiderman likes Canterbury!!!
Awwwww!!!!!
The Skate Park on the South Bank on the way to the National.
We went on an incredible backstage tour of the National Theatre. We got to see the new scene shops, props work rooms, and the new Dorfmann Theatre. Very informative.
After the tour we took a dinner break on the South Bank where we all went to different restaurants.
This group decided to go to Yo! Sushi!
Some of us ate at EAT.
That evening we went to see one of my favorite plays, Our Country's Good at the National. It is about the founding of Australia as a penal colony and the first play the prisoners put on. It is a play about corporal punishment vs rehabilitation. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best production. I feel that it was ruined by the music they chose to compose and use which slowed the play down a lot and by the fact that it wasn't double cast. Oh, well. It lead to great discussion in Page to Stage class. That is now two National Theatre shows that were so-so. The other was War Horse this time around. Lacked energy for some reason and a lot of empty seats. War Horse is due to close March 12th and go on tour in England.
The set.
The Art in London class with Becky Hurst went to a number of places the second week. First was the Lord Leighton House, then the Serpentine Gallery.
Serpentine Pod.
Here are some of the figures from the Duane Hanson exhibit.
Who is NOT real?
More to come in next blog....Here is the crew that went dancing at Rumba! Not sure who had the rumba moves!!!!
THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!!!!!!
