(written yesterday)
Today was my last day in England. Tomorrow we fly home. I amready to go home; I miss Livy, our friends, and my home. I am also really readyto get back to work and school next week.
But I’m sad to be leaving, too. This is the longest tripI’ve ever taken, and, though I was afraid I would get sick of being away after3 weeks, I loved being away this long. I feel like I got really settled intotraveling. I got over the frenzied feeling of needing to see everything andrelaxed into a pace that works for me. Aaron and I had lots of time togetheralone, which was awesome, and we also stayed long enough to want some timealone. Time alone in England ROCKS.
So today, I went to Canterbury on the train by myself. Iwalked to the cathedral and toured it with a guide. The highlights for me werethe tombs of Edward the Black Prince and Henry IV. It was funny to me that theywere buried right there next to each other when Henry IV, dreadful usurper thathe was, killed off Edward’s son, Richard II, to get the throne. But I guesspeople don’t care who they end up hanging out with when they are dead.
It was cool to see the place where Thomas Beckett wasmurdered, but thanks to that douchebag Henry VIII, may harpies plague hisspirit, the tomb, Beckett’s body, and everything to do with him was destroyed.Henry even dared to wear a jewel off of Beckett’s tomb on a ring. And guess whoalso wore it before it disappeared? Blasted Mary Tudor.
Speaking of Mary Tudor, have I blogged about our householdgods? We have a space on the mantle where we keep images of historical figureswe love. Right now, Jane Austen, Shakespeare, and Einstein are up there. I’vebeen looking for Isaac Newton for a long time; somewhere on the internet is afinger puppet of him, which would be perfect, but I can’t find a way to orderone. On this trip, I bought a Darwin bust to add.
I also started a new tradition associated with our householdgods. I bought too hated figures to put up there as voodoo dolls, with pinsthrough their vitals. First, Mary Freaking Tudor, of course. When I stick her,I will think of Thomas Cranmer, an Anglican priest she burned (among the manypeople she burned) who wrote the beautiful Bookof Common Prayer. I also got William the Conqueror, who will get a pin inhonor of my beloved Anglo-Saxons. If you ever find that you need to buy me apresent, here are the other figures I want: Newton, Asimov, Keats, Henry VIII(able to be either stuck with a pin or beheaded), E.M. Forster, Gerard ManleyHopkins, Chaucer, and Werner Von Braun, who needs to be hit with a V-1, but apin will have to do.
Back to Canterbury.
After the cathedral, I went to the super-cheesy andoh-so-wonderful Canterbury Tales “Museum.” Basically, you get an audio guideand walk through scenes from the tales, while Chaucer tells you basic contextabout pilgrimages to Canterbury and retells some of the most famous tales. Itwas dark and the mannequins were creepy! I would not take small children therebecause they would be terrified. The Wife of Bath mannequin in particular wasghastly. As the audio guide tells the tales, lights shine on different parts ofthe scenes. You start in the tavern, move through the Knight’s Tale (withstained glass window projections of the brothers), the Miller’s Tale (withmoving wooden butt that hangs out of the window at the right time), the Wife ofBath’s Tale (more stained glass looking projections), the Pardoner’s Tale (withcreepy silhouette of the friend’s funeral that the 3 dudes see), and the Nun’sPriest’s Tale (with a movable Chanticleer that goes up a tree).
If you can imagine the animatronics of the Rainforest Café,combined with a wax museum, combined with the Canterbury Tales, you’ve got theright idea. After the stories, you see a scene of Beckett’s tomb in theCathedral. This place was just awesome, and I wouldn’t have missed it for allthe dignity in the world (which I had to check at the door and one other timewhen I had to ask for directions to the “museum”). It was the world’s biggestball of twine for English majors.
In the afternoon, I took a walk through Canterbury, by theNorman castle, along the river, and back to the city center. I had hotchocolate and read for a while and then went to Evensong at the cathedral. Thechoir was very good, and I liked the arrangements better than any I’ve heard onthis trip.
Now I am stuck on a delayed train somewhere betweenCanterbury and London, and these train people need to know that they aredelaying my birthday dinner of Chicken Balti!!
