British Isles Explorer: Canterbury, England (3/27/2022)

Sunday, March 27, 2022

We weren't alert enough to take a photo of the White Cliffs of Dover as we sailed past early in the morning!

View from our stateroom

The gangway crew readies to extend
to our disembarkation point

The Viking Venus docked at Dover, and our included tour to Canterbury began at 8:30 for three hours. The motorcoach dropped us off near the end of St Georges Street. Using our QuietVox audio devices, we could listen to our guide without having to stand next to her, as we walked through the old town. It was drizzling today.

St George's Tower (14-15C) is all that
remains of the Church of St George the
Martyr, which was badly damaged by
German bombs in 1942 as a reprisal for the
bombing by the Allies of the Lübeck and
Cologne; however, where the Allies
specifically avoided the Cathedral of
Cologne, the Geremans may have been
aiming for the Canterbury Cathedral

St George's Church was where playwright Christopher Marlowe was baptized, and the house where he lived nearby was destroyed by the same bombs.

St George's Tower Clock (2010 to the
1836 design) (KSS)

The World War II bombings by the Germans in 1942 were called the Baedeker Raids, because the Germans used the Baedeker tourist guidebooks to target cultural cities. The Canterbury Cathedral itself was saved due to the men designated as firewatchers who picked up incendiary bombs that landed on the roof and put them out before a fire started.

4 St Georges Street survived the 1942 bombing because of
its steel structure, although the façade was rebuilt post-war

4 Longmarket was rebuilt in a style to show
influence of the French-speaking Walloons
who were given refuge, along with other
Protestant groups, by Queen Elizabeth I

These educated and skilled refugees, along with those from Spanish Netherlands, were welcomed and they were especially important to the weaving industry.

This was to be our best view of Canterbury
Cathedral, which is entirely walled-in,
seen from Butchery Lane

The continuation of St Georges Street is the Parade

Sun Fire Office on the site of an early
fire insurance company (est 1710) at a time
where those with insurance placed a symbol
on their house so that the firefighters
knew which houses to save

A typical Tudor half-timber house with retail on the
ground floor and rooms to let for medieval pilgrims
coming to Canterbury Cathedral in those times

Overhanging floors of upper stories are the result of 
paying taxes for the house footprint on the ground and not
the extra space created by extended floors of upper stories

Stone remnants of a pilgrim hostel
mentioned by Geoffrey Chaucer in
The Canterbury Tales

Memorial to the Royal East Kent Yeomanry
(1794-1921) who fought in South Africa
(Boer War, 1900-1901) and World War I

Queen Elizabeth's Guest Chambers; when
Queen Elizabeth I visited Canterbury in 1573,
her guests stayed in this building that is known
for its Tudor style and the pargetting/
relief plasterwork on the top story

The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge
(1897-1899, by A H Campbell to house the
collections of Dr James G Beaney as well as
a museum and the library)

The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge entrance portico
where the pigeon is either impaled or it is sitting
comfortably in front of bird repellent spikes

Kent Fire Service Coat of Arms displayed at the
former firehouse; Invicta/Undefeated is the motto of
the English county of Kent in which Canterbury is located

Statue (2016, by Sam Holland &
Lynn O'Dowd) of poet Geoffrey Chaucer
dressed as a pilgrim, holding the opening
pages of The Canterbury Tales, and wearing
an astrolabe around his neck because he
wrote the user manual for the instrument
that is a handheld model of the universe

Around the base of the Chaucer statue are relief
carvings of the 29 pilgrims, plus animals and
objects from The Canterbury Tales

People who contributed to the project had their faces
given to the pilgrims; Orlando Bloom was supposed
to be a young squire, but I guessed wrongly

Eastbridge Hospital (late 1100s as a place of
hospitality for pilgrims coming to honor
Thomas a Becket) was later used as a school
that Christopher Marlowe attended

View from Eastbridge down the Great Stour

In the distance is a replica ducking stool,
used to punish "scolds" and other unruly
persons, but not witches

Unboxed Kent - a zero waste (no plastic or
packaging) shop at 10 St Peters Street (KSS)

Unboxed Kent: containers for laundry detergent
or cleaners, which can be refilled (KSS)

Oops, the guide is turning right, so a quick shot of
Westgate (c 1379), a medieval gatehouse in walls
that date back to Roman times (c 300 CE)

Marlowe Memorial (1891) with a statue
(by Edward Onslow Ford) of the Muse
of Poetry; the statuettes depict actors
playing roles created by Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe is the playwright who was a contemporary of William Shakespeare, and is sometimes credited for writing or co-writing the plays attributed to Shakespeare. Ye gods, there is no proof!

Marlowe Theatre (2009-2011, by Keith Williams)

Kent chats with Dave Legge aka Dave Lee,
a British comedian and pantomine star
(statue 2013, by Dominic Grant) who is
remembered for his philanthropy

59 Palace Street is the legendary site of
the signing of the contract to hire
the Mayflower ship for the Puritans'
voyage to the New World

The Little Inn (1503) on Sun Street was made
famous by Charles Dickens in his writings
about travel through Kent

Canterbury War Memorial (1921) in
memory of those who fell in the Great War

Scaffolding covers Christchurch Gate (1517)

Guards prevent anyone except those
attending services into the precincts of
Canterbury Cathedral (KSS)

We returned to the main street to purchase postcards.

Mmm, chimney cakes made from sweet yeast
dough wrapped around a cylinder

"Food trucks" include the chimney cakes, coffee and Thai food

White Cliffs of Dover from the motorcoach

There is a network of tunnels in the cliffs, and here are the
headquarters of the military Operation Dynamo

In May 1940, the Allied forces of British, French and Belgian troops were trapped by the invading German army on the coast of France and Belgium, in the area around Dunkirk, France. Operation Dynamo was the biggest evacuation in military history and saved the Allied cause in Europe from total collapse. The ‘big ships’ under the Royal Navy, mainly destroyers, minesweepers and requisitioned merchant vessels with naval crews, crossed to Dunkirk time and time again, without rest, and suffered terrible losses under fire from the Germans. Because the larger ships could not get close enough to land, hundreds of civilian vessels, from fishing smacks and cockle boats to lifeboats and sailing barges, were requisitioned to ferry troops from land to the bigger ships, or even took them across the Strait of Dover themselves. Over 300,000 troops made it out safely.

Next: Dover, England.