Our Canterbury Tale

The Stover Jr. family recently took a trip to Canterbury, UK over reading week (a week off from school, like spring break).  We spent 2 nights there and saw much of the city.  Canterbury is the setting of Chaucer's 14th Century collection of stories, The Canterbury Tales. This was one of the first books ever published in English.  It describes the pilgrimage many people made from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of a famous Archbishop, after he was murdered in the Canterbury Cathedral in the 1170.

So, of course, we had to visit the Canterbury Cathedral.  It is a beautiful Gothic cathedral, much like Westminster in London, and is a World Heritage Site.  It is also the symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican church and home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the principal leader of the Church of England.  We even got to attend a short service of Evensong while there and it was a very lovely and powerful service.  Fun fact: Canterbury was where Christianity was first brought to England!

The Canterbury Cathedral

A selfie in front of the Cathedral

A street in downtown Canterbury, with the cathedral in the background

Since we considered this little trip our Valentine's Day gift to each other we decided to have a fancy dinner out while in Canterbury (this is a big deal for us, since we don't have a lot of money right now, and usually just purchase cheap food...) So we found this nice little restaurant on the river called 'The Old Weaver's House' and had a lovely dinner in a charming historic building.

The quaint restaurant where we had 'Valentine's Dinner'

Canterbury is a rather small town, with cute little boutique shops up and down the main streets.  It is easy to walk through the whole town in a matter of hours, perusing the little shops and historic buildings.  There are also a few museums to check out, such as the Canterbury Roman museum which gives you a look into what the city was like in the Roman period.  The Beany House of Art and Knowledge was another museum we visited, which houses random artifacts and collections from around the world.  Here you can see Emily playing with some dolls, really she just needed a break from walking around!

Emily playing with dolls

Then there are the historic gems that we found in the town - like the ruins of an old castle and the Westgate into the city, which is the largest surviving city gate in England, built around 1379.  While wandering through the streets we ran across this out-of-the-way path that lead to a pretty park. We also walked through an old hospital, but not in the sense that we use the word.  It was actually a place of hospitality for pilgrims to who were coming to Canterbury to visit the cathedral in the 12th Century.  We don't have any good pictures of that, but it was an interesting visit.

Ruins of the Canterbury Castle from 1066

The Westgate into the city

A river running through town

The 'out-of-the-way path' we stumbled upon

While we had a lovely time in Canterbury, it is a place you can see in only one or two days.  It is a quaint little town, that is easily walkable, with many historic buildings and stories.  A worthwhile weekend trip from London!

London with the Sundins

Since the Christmas holidays have come and gone, and we are starting up lectures again tomorrow, we thought we would do a little blog update about the exciting things that happened over our break.

First, many of you know that my (Emily's) family came over to celebrate with us.  My mom, dad, brother (Andy) and his girlfriend (Macey) all made the long trip across the pond to see us, as well as travel a bit around Europe.

The Sundins in Trafalgar Square

The first week we spent in London, with Brandon and I as the official tour guides.  We took them to all the well-known sites, as well as a few of our favorite spots.

Some highlights of our week in London:
Edge Bar - On the first afternoon the Sundins were in town, we first took them Oxford Circus and Soho.  They were pretty much starving since they had been on a flight all night and spent over a hour on the tube getting to their flat.  So we walked into the first decent looking pub we found.  After being seated and ordering our food from a well-dressed, well-groomed waiter, we began to notice the signage and noticing the interesting videos playing on the big screens.  Then my dad mentioned, "Is this a gay bar!?!?" And yes, the first pub experience for my family was at a gay bar.  However, the food was good and decently priced and the waiters were friendly, so overall we had a nice experience.

"Andy is Out, Macey is In" - When we took the family to St. Catherine's for their Christmas Carols service, Macey got confused as being my sister, apparently we look more alike than Andy and I do! So we decided that she is now in the family and Andy is out. Also at the service, Brandon and I performed a jazzy version of The Holly and the Ivy for saxophone and piano.

Christmas Eve at Westminster -  Beautiful church, beautiful service, a great way to spend Christmas eve!  Even though pictures are not allowed, Dad was sneaky and took this great one of us with the candles!

Carols and Candlelight at Westminster

Boris Bikes on Christmas Day - Since all public transport in London shuts down on Christmas day, we had no way of getting around town.  So we decided to rent a few bikes from the nearby bike stand and rode bikes around the Hackney area on Christmas day.  We also had tacos for Christmas dinner, not the traditional, but still very tasty!

In addition, we toured the Tower of London in the rain, ate at lots and lots of pubs and sort-of saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham (which it is not really worth seeing and was rather disappointing...).  We also walked across the famous Abbey Road and enjoyed cheese, bread, chocolates and mulled cider at Borough Market.

The fam at the Tower of London, with Tower Bridge in the background

Abbey Road

Check back soon to hear about our adventures in Amsterdam!

Em and B

St. Catherine's Church

Many of you know that Brandon and I are proclaimed Christians.  We love Jesus and we try to live our life in a way that reflects Him.  So, it is important to us to find a church home while we are in London.  Not only does a weekly worship service help you feel closer to Christ, but it is a way of connecting with the community of Christians and gives us a support system to rely on when things get difficult.  We have joined the Christian Union on campus and attend their events when we can.  We have also befriended the campus vicar (clergy).  Both have offered several church suggestions for us to try, so we spent our first month visiting several area churches to get a taste of what is available and find a church home while living in London.

So the church we landed on is St. Catherine's!! This is a Church of England (Anglican) based church and it is located on the top of big hill, with wonderful views of the city.  The building itself is made up of Gothic architecture and is a wonderful atmosphere to worship inside.  The vicar of the church is a woman, who is interested in developing the music programs at the church and reaching out into the community of New Cross.  The service itself was much like St. Matthew's, with a very liturgical based worship and even included some familiar phrases ("The Lord be with you....and also with you!")  Everyone is very nice and we have already met many of the church members.  Downsides of this church - not very many other students (25-35 age range) attend, the congregation is made up of mostly young families and older adults.  But overall, it feels a lot like St. Matthew's and I love the fact that we can offer our musical gifts to help the vicar in her vision.

Here are some pictures of our new church home!

The sanctuary and alter

Stained Glass windows above the alter

Gothic arches

Outside sign

The front of the church

Happy Sunday everyone!!