Visit to Canterbury cathedral.

Before the visit:

In class we looked at pictures of the cathedral. The cathedral looked beautiful and also very big. I think I'm really going to like the visit to the cathedral but I hope we will not have a guide who talks very boring. Furthermore I think the visit is going to be fascinating and exciting too. I don't know much about the history of the cathedral myself. I know many pilgrimages went to the cathedral, which they do now also. Luckily, we had some hand-outs before we went there, so that we know a bit more. In the hand-outs it said that the bishop wanted to have a cathedral with the highest tower in the region and that it's built around the year 1248. I hope we will learn about it more during the visit and especially enjoy our visit.

After the visit:

When we arrived at Canterbury we walked to the Cathedral. Then we were standing in front of a kind of gate. We went through it and then we were suddenly standing in front of the cathedral. I think it was like I had expected, beautiful and big. Almost everybody took some pictures. We met our guide and went inside. I was happy that our guide wasn't boring or something. First he told a few things about himself and then started about the cathedral. We went from west to east, just as the people did when they went on pilgrimage because in the west is the less holy part, further to the east is closer to Jerusalem, so more holy. 

The guide told us the story of Thomas Becket. He was archbishop of Canterbury form 1162 until he was murdered in 1170. Much people come on pilgrimages to Canterbury cathedral because of Thomas Becket. His body is in a tomb with a kind of holes in it so you can pray very close to the body of Becket. People also drunk blood of him because it was holy. This I found really weird. The whole story about Becket I'm not going to forget soon because I found it a really fascinating story and he was also important in the history of the cathedral. 

The middle of the cathedral where we went through a gate, I liked the most because it was very beautiful but actually the whole cathedral was. I liked the stained glass windows and the decorations to. In the stained glass windows mostly stories are told, our guide told us about it. 

I think we all enjoyed the trip and learned much about it!