A Cold, Rainy English Day

 *** This post was written on Friday, July 6th 2012***

 

England is a treasure trove.

There are endless things to do, endless things to see, and endless things to discover.

These past two days alone I have met the author of 27 books—Mary Cadogen—I have explored the Imperial War Museum, I’ve gone through the Secret War Tunnels at Dover Castle and poked around the Great Tower, I laid my hands on a lighthouse built by the Romans in the 1^st century, I’ve walked inside one of Britain’s oldest churches—Church of St. Mary-in-Castro which was built in the year 1000 A.D-- and I’ve seen the white cliffs of Dover with my own eyes. I made it to Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury; a feat not even Chaucer’s pilgrim’s accomplished since he never finished writing their tales! I saw where Thomas Beckett was martyred and where his shrine was housed before Henry VIII ordered it to be demolished. (He just never was a very nice guy, was he?)

As Maria from The Sound of Music would say, let’s start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start! 

Our class with Dr. Cadogen!

Yesterday renowned author Dr. Mary Cadogen visited us to discuss the influence of some American children’s books on British ones. She began with Little Women where the first tomboy in literature emerges through the loveable character of Jo March, and traced American literary influence through the novels What Katy Did, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden and A Little Princess. After a morning full of nostalgia for me, a few of the girls from class along with Dr. Lare’s and our guest speaker went out to lunch at a fantastic restaurant, “The Wharf,” which overlooks the Thames River from Gabriel’s Wharf. 

We leisurely munched on bread and sipped on wine, worked our way through warm, delicious meals and topped it off with tea, coffee, and desert. Everybody had a chance to speak, but the most captivating part of the afternoon was when Dr. Cadogen solemnly shared what it felt like to live through the Blitz with us. She said sometimes she would go to class and a desk next to her would be empty because a schoolmate died in a bombing, and one young soldier she thought she was in love with never came home from the battlefields. 

Its one thing to go to a museum and read about history, but it is quite another to talk to a living piece of it.

In front of the Imperial War Museum

After lunch I rushed back to the dorms to meet Jamie so that we could go to the Imperial War Museum. Because we only had 2 hours until it closed we couldn’t look at all the displays, but since I had spent the afternoon talking to someone who experienced WWII as a child in the center of London, we went to the lower level to gleam what we could from the WWI and WWII displays. We “walked through the trenches” and “experienced the blitz;” we read love letters that never made it to their destination and saw real guns, missiles, and sections of planes that had witnessed—or caused—the bloodshed themselves. We learned about the great and the terrible leaders, and by walking through a special display titled “Family at War” got a feel for what it would be like to be a family living off of food and clothes rations and working in the factories and hospitals while men fought and died on the battlefields in sea, land and sky. 

Stuck behind the Berlin Wall! ;)

Eventually we had to be kicked out of the museum as they closed the doors on us, but I’m glad we at least got the glimpse that we did of war history from Britain’s point of view. The rest of the night was spent doing laundry and, for my part, working out bank logistics. Then it was time to call it a night in preparation of a big, upcoming Friday!

That brings me to today. Let me just start off by saying that I have this philosophy which has worked quite well for me so far, and that is that if I feel sick, or think I might be sick, I just pretend I’m not and I don’t say anything to anybody and it magically goes away.

Well I’m just going to crumble to my philosophy and admit, I think I’ve caught a bug. Because when I woke up this morning I had a sore throat and stuffy nose and felt yucky, and it really hasn’t gone away all day. It probably doesn’t help that I spent half the day in the rain and, oh yeah, there is a puddle of water that has been on my bathroom floor since I got here so my dorm room isn’t exactly a haven of health!

Dover Castle

Castle in fog

Well, I pushed through the morning and was on the coach promptly at 8 o’clock, hoping that the grogginess in my head would eventually lift. As we drove out into the English countryside, a drive I have been desperately waiting for, I fell into a hopelessly deep sleep and missed everything. By the time I woke up our coach was climbing the hill to Dover Castle, and it was certainly a sight to behold. This morning in particular it looked marvelously English with a blanket of mist and fog enveloping its ancient, stone walls. It stood proud on its tall hill looming over the English Channel; it has been a fortress for the people of Great Britain for thousands of years and remains unscathed to this very day. It was even used during WWI and WWII; during WWII it served as the headquarters for Vice Admiral Sir Betram Ramsay to control the evacuation from Dunkirk which saved over 200,000 lives. 

All of this having been said, I wish I could have been more excited to disembark from the bus and explore and enormous, glorious medieval castle. 

But it was cold. And it was raining. And I didn’t feel very good. 

So I “ooh-ed” and “aww-ed” and snapped pictures and admired the absolutely incredible view, but I also kept wishing I was somewhere warm and dry where I could roast my toes by a fireplace and put something hot and delicious into my belly.

In other words, I was sympathizing heavily with Bilbo Baggins during his journey in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, during which he often said “I wish I was at home in my nice hole by the fire…” 

Well, even if the weather and my health weren’t the greatest, it was still a spectacular sight to see. I toured the Underground Hospital where wounded soldiers were taken during WWII (imagine M.A.S.H. and it becomes much easier to envision what it was like), and I would my way up through the Great Tower that King Henry II built until I made it to the top. From here the view of the surrounding fortress and the city of Dover framed by the English Channel was truly breathtaking. 

View of Dover!

The sheep (which you can't see) in the countryside

I think my favorite part of it was being able to see the white, wooly sheep that dotted the vibrant, green countryside from my bird’s eye view. I know that sounds lame compared to a castle and the English Channel and a sprawling, seaside town, but sheep just seem so darn English. I’ve read way too much Thomas Hardy, I guess! 

ENGLAND BABY!

It wasn’t until the end of our time at Dover that the sun finally came out, and then we loaded up the busses to head to Canterbury. Upon arrival Jamie, our friend Lindsey, and I hunted down the nearest café and found a darling, fairly priced sandwich shop in the medieval city. I filled my belly with leek and potato soup and we ate at a table on the side walk, in the sunshine, where we could watch the activity in the town buzz around us. By the time we were finished eating we only had about an hour and a half before we needed to be back at the busses, so of course we did what everybody who goes to Canterbury MUST do: we toured Canterbury Cathedral, the sight of Thomas Beckett’s martyrdom and the famous destination for Chaucer’s pilgrims in Canterbury Tales. Of course it was fantastically beautiful, but I have to say I’m happy that the first cathedral I ever toured was Westminster Abbey, because after a while all of the old English churches kind of start to look the same…but Westminster is still my favorite of all!

Again I slept the entire bus trip home, and missed all of the countryside, and when we got back to the dorms that night I ate dinner in my kitchen with one of my flat mates, went grocery shopping with Jamie, then went to bed early. Good sleep is key to getting well, and I would rather spend a couple of my London nights resting in my dorm so that I can get all better again then the rest of my London time feeling sick and miserable.

 

Inside Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral!

Tomorrow, it’s off to Bath and Stonehenge! Here’s to hoping the weather is better as are my spirits ;) 

***P.S: The next day was MUCH better and VERY lovely, more to come soon!!!***