Canterbury and Dover

We headed to Canterbury Cathedral today. Canterbury is one of my favorite small villages and I Knew the students would love it. I tried to arrange the schedule so that we would have a little longer there before we moved on to Dover, but many students wanted to spend longer in Dover. We voted and Dover won so there was little time to explore in Canterbury. We had a great tour. The tour guides are volunteers and ours really loved the place and made that obvious in his tour. He took us to some places I had never seen before including the Chapter House and the ruins of the Abbey. The photo is of a chapel in the Cathedral. It is a very impressive place and really a must for visitors to England. We went to the crypt below Debenham's Department Store (I'm not sure why there would a crypt below a department store but I didn't ask any questions) and had fish and chips.

It was a beautiful day to go on to Dover. We gave the students the option of going to Dover Castle along with the World War II command center caverns underneath, or going down to the town and walking on the beach and exploring the town. It was a split with 12 going to the castle and 12 going to the beach. I think everyone was happy. We saw the castle and command center last visit so we decided to go to the beach. I always think of Matthew Arnold's poem, Dover Beach when I am there. It begins:

The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; -on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

We could see France 20+ miles across the Channel. The weather was beautiful and several people wanted to wade in the Channel. It was very cold and no one stayed in very long. As the sun set (we moved the clock back Sunday morning) we could see the lights on the French coast. The ferries were heading out and coming in. Tony (our driver) said that Dover was "dying" due to the increased use of the tunnel and train connections between London and Paris. People who used to come down for a ferry ride across to France are no longer coming to Dover. It did seem very depressed but it is such a wonderful spot that I hope it will build back up. As the famous song says, "There'll be blue birds over the white cliffs of Dover, tomorrow, just you wait and see."