Canterbury

First stop on our holiday through southern England was Canterbury and the infamous cathedral. In addition to being the martyrdom location of St. Thomas Beckett, it is also the the final destination for Geoffrey Chaucer's pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales.

Our pilgrimmage included a fun children's quest through the cathedral where we had to search for certain signs and symbols. Below you can see Matt and Amy drawing some of the symbols on their quest sheet. One of our "assignments" was to count how many lions we saw (English monarch's symbol)... we lost count somewhere in the twenties...

Family Favourites:

Matt really enjoyed the stained glass depictions of Bible events.

Emily was fascinated with the story of Thomas Beckett and kept referring to the cathedral as his "house."

Amy tried her hand at photography during this trip for the first time and did quite well. She also enjoyed finding the owls that were intricately carved in the quire loft.

Lana enjoyed the treasury display in the underground croft (not pictured because photography was not allowed down there).

This photo gives you a good perspective of just how massive this cathedral is... that's Lana, Amy, and Emily standing by the front doors.

Whilst touring the cathedral we had the privilege of hearing an Eastern European symphony orchestra rehearsing for their evening concert to be broadcast via the BBC. Their performance really topped off our experience at this amazing historic site.