Day 19

Today, we were supposed to eat breakfast together, pack a lunch from the Refectory, and then meet Professors Wolfe and Parkhouse at the Sherlock Holmes Statue in front of the Baker Street Tube Station at 8:20am however, since today was a Bank Holiday, the Refectory was not open until 8:30am. Professor Wolfe bought us all cinnamon rolls and chocolate croissants for breakfast, and we stopped at Marks & Spencers in the train station to pick up some sandwiches and crisps for lunch instead. We boarded the 9:10am train to Dover Priory and, to our surprise, our particular rail had been recently upgraded to a high speed track. Our trip that we were planning on taking at least 2 hours took only an hour an five minutes since we were able to travel at 140 mph! Once we arrived in Dover, we walked down to the seaside and immediately the White Cliffs of Dover came into view. Professor Parkhouse explained to us that the cliffs are white because they are chalk. He said because of the sediment compound in the cliffs, not many plants are able to grow because roots cannot penetrate the chalk deep enough to survive, which is why the cliffs are mostly bare.

He also explained to us that the beach which we walked on was covered in flint pebbles, with which people long ago used to carve weapons such as axes and arrowheads. We also noticed around the town that larger flint stones were used to create stone walls. Naturally, we all had to browse up and down the beach searching for unique souvenir pebbles to bring home. After collecting our flint rocks, we took one last look at the cliffs before heading back to the train station. We boarded the train for Canterbury East and after 20 minutes, we arrived.

We walked through narrow alleys and streets with various shops and stores on either side until we reached the line for the Canterbury Cathedral. Professor Wolfe bought our entrance tickets and we all entered the massive, Gothic style cathedral with a history dating back to 597 A.D. Thomas Becket, a 12th century chancellor and archbishop of Canterbury was murdered in the Cathedral on December 29, 1170 by four knights who believed King Henry II wanted him dead for siding with the church and going against the king. The structure that stands today was built between 1377-1405 and has been maintained and refurbished several times since. We all browsed the cathedral at our own pace, admiring the architecture and detail that went in to constructing the massive building. At 2 pm, we finished our visit to Canterbury and boarded the 2:22pm train back to the Victoria Station in London. This ride took much longer than the first trip, since the train back to London was not upgraded to high speed. We finally arrived back in London and ate dinner together in the refectory at 6pm.