Day Eleven 23rd July 2009 - Leeds Castle & Canterbury

Into the county of Kent today.  Our first stop is at Leeds Castle that dates back to 872 AD.  The castle is set in the most beautiful grounds and is built on two small islands in the middle of a lake.  It is a magnificent site as you approach it down through some beautiful gardens.  There is a good deal of history inside, but much of the castle is as Lady Baillie, the last occupant of the castle, left it. To see it as a home makes it all the more interesting. The furniture, ceramics and paintings are exquisite.

Leeds also has other attractions such as an aviary, dog collar museum (!) and the infamous maze.  All of us made it into the maze but some got out more quickly than others!  After a morning spent at this great castle (not actually in Leeds, Yorkshire but named after its original Saxon owner, Esledes) we had our lunch and then boarded the coaches for the ride to Canterbury.

The drive to Canterbury takes you along the route the pilgrims would have taken as they journied to see the tomb of St Thomas Beckett.  The countryside is beautiful and full of fruit trees and hop fields (Kent is known as the garden of England).

Canterbury Cathedral is an awesome site.  Like all cathedrals it is big, but there is something extra about this building that is home to the Church of England.  We enter and slowly make our way to the site of Beckett's murder in 1170 by the 4 knights and then up to the place where his tomb was situated.  Henry VIII had the tomb dismantled in 1538 and today a single candle burns to mark its place.  In the stone work you can see the indentation made by the knees of countless pilgrims as they shuffled past the shrine.

After our visit to the cathedral there is some time to spend in the delightful city before we return to Charterhouse.