Dover and Castle

November 20 we drove on to Folkstone and the Vicarious
bookstore, which maintains a collection of European and
UK camping guides. After stocking up there, we drove on,
in a downpour, to Dover, and stopped at the town center
carpark, where overnighting is allowed. We shopped all the
charity stores, donating as well as purchasing, then took in
the castle the next day. Above, the giant TV screen in city
square, Dover

Dover castle by night

Main castle by day; it's a huge, curtained,

11th-12th century structure

Keep

Throne room; English Heritage just finished a major

restoration in August, furnishing the keep with a variety of

objects thought to be typical of what it was like in the 12th

century; "history in technicolor" they call it



Banquet hall; more history in technicolor







Just down from the keep, the 1st century Roman lighthouse

and the 10th century Saxon church

We also visited the Dover Wartime Tunnels (of which there

are nearly 4 miles' worth); the tunnels date from the

Napoleonic Wars, but were expanded and used importantly

in WWII, especially in directing the Dunkirk evacuation;

similar in approach, exhibit-wise, to the Cabinet War

Rooms; no pix allowed

More Canterbury Cathedral

Medieval painting on wall showing the
life of St. Eustace

Detail; apparently St. Eustace was converted after having a
vision of Christ crucified on the antlers of a deer; the Lord
works in mysterious ways...

Beautiful blue window

The Canterbury Pilgrims window: Chaucer's agent saw this
in 1277 and dashed off the following note: "Jeff: how about
pilgrims on their way from London to Canterbury? Could
be a vehicle for your short stories; cross-section of society
...what do you think?"

The Black Prince, a personal favorite

Set up for event the next morning; where's the most
 important guy sit? (or possibly the tallest?)

In addition to the items depicted here, we also visited the crypt (no pix), which was quite interesting.

Becket

The bad guys entered through this archway

Thomas fell here

Scene of the crime

And then there is this shrine, in the chancel, which marks the 
spot of the original official shrine, 13th-16th centuries, until 
Henry VIII ordered it removed; nobody likes Henry II or VIII

For obscure reasons, our patron saint is Thomas Becket. It's mostly about the movie, Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. And a date to see the movie. But we never miss the martyrdom sight when we're in Canterbury.

Interestingly, we had a long conversation with a prelate, a local, who regards Thomas as an interloper who only spent enough time in Canterbury to get killed there; wasn't a church-man anyway, "really." A far more substantial local figure he recommended was St. Dunstan, who, from the description, indeed sounded impressive and willing to defy quite a few kings. We still like Richard Burton.

Canterbury Cathedral

A leaning bookstore

Deserves a leaning door

Canterbury Cathedral

West Face

Nave

Beautful stonework at entry to choir (note scaffolding at
right...the south transept is falling in (pieces of it) and is
being reinforced)

Incredible fan vaulting in the crossing ceiling, 10 or 15
stories up there

November 19 We drove on to Dorking and Beastleigh Dorking on-the-Bum and a big caravan/RV store, shopping a bit, then on across still beautiful Kent to Canterbury, more shopping and the great cathedral, staying the night finally at coach park.

Windsor Castle

Part of Windsor Castle; it's quite huge

One entry way

The original 12th century keep, built by 

Henry II

Big bailey; the Queen lives  in the high middle structure,
so we were told

In tough times, the changing of the guard is cut back...

Chapel of St. George, very impressive fan vaulting, etc., 

but, as with elsewhere indoors, no pix

Night-time from our "camp site"

We reluctantly left London and drove back out to Windsor, to see the great castle. I was impressed, obviously more so than our 1989 visit, which I had completely forgotten. We parked that night in a city carpark, legally, right under the castle.

Last Day in London

US Embassy in London--no demonstrators!--we had to get
something notarized (it's a long story) and also have
additional pages pasted into our passports

Nice statue of Ike outside the Embassy

Selfridge's, very large London department store

Finishing up with another visit to the British 
Museum; an Egyptian tour

The Flood and Noah story, from the Gilgamesh Epic, book 13

Babylonian tablet letter and envelope (seriously)

A new exhibit, the Staffordshire Hoard, just
found in July, one of the largest British gold
hoard finds to date; we are seriously
reconsidering our decision not to buy a metal
detector

You can never have enough hand axes, I always say

I don't think it's a chain, yet

We did lots of other things in London, not least lunch with Rebecca's friend and former colleague Anne, shopping around Covent Garden and Regent Street (well, looking...), and, the last few days, wondering why it was we were going to leave this wonderful city.

More from Victoria and Albert

In the metal grillwork galleries

"Breathless"--a large mobile of flattened silver musical

instruments

Sculpture of Handel, Britain's favorite

18th century composer

Soup spoon for persons with large mustaches

In another Cast Court, the world's only

plaster cast of the David

They even have a St. Sebastian

And half a dozen Turners

In the fashion wing, Lord Herringbone's

new clothes

And lastly, a 70s cocktail dress innovation

that didn't quite catch on