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

Victoria and Albert Museum

We visited the V&A Museum and were quite taken

with it. It bills itself as the largest collection of decorative

arts in the world. But it is also a wonderful statement of

Victorian values and aspirations, a major collection of

many types of items, and an educational institution.

Beware: a day would not be enough even to jog through

its many halls, galleries, and wings. Above, someone

else's shot.

Entry rotunda

The Raphael Cartoons (for Sistine Chapel tapestries)

One of three Victorian designer cafes, this one by

William Morris

Inner courtyard

Glass galleries

One of the giant Cast Courts; Albert had this
idea that, since most people couldn't travel,
he'd just bring authentic copies of the world's
great art to London; agreements were made

with relevant other countries, and a couple
big rooms were filled; then it went out of
fashion and the rooms were closed off for
decades; then they were rediscovered, replete
with copies of several things destroyed in the
wars; and are now open; Trajan's Column is
pictured, along with various other items

In the tapestry galleries, the largest tapestry I have ever

seen

Part of the silver galleries

Part of the sculpture galleries

In the stained glass gallery

The Ardabil carpet, very large, intricate, old

Tate Britain and the National Gallery

The Tate Britain Museum

The National Gallery

We spent a day each at the Tate Britain and at the National Gallery. At the Tate, we did a couple guided tours, but almost entirely Turner, which is what we came for. After the tours and galleries, I did the new exhibit entitled "Turner and the Masters." Turner's appeal, to me, has been almost entirely intuitive or aesthetic, if you will; I knew very little of the man, and certainly little of art and of painting. I came away with my intuitions bolstered, but also better understanding why I like his work, his contributions to art history, etc.  A learned painter--he read and criticized Newton's and Goethe's theories of colors--but also a great innovator and experimenter. And beneath it all, a surpassingly energetic competitor and businessman.

We were very impressed with the National Gallery. It does not have the size nor scope of the Louvre, but the art seemed to us better displayed, more accessible.  And, of course, there is far more there than can be taken in, even hastily, in a day. Alas, neither of these great museums permits photography, but they both have superb websites.