While I love London, and I love being able to hop on a plane and head to a new country in less than a couple of hours, sometimes I just want to get out of the city and breathe a bit.  One of the central themes of Need Another Holiday‘s #Take12Trips is that you don’t have to travel across borders to be travelling – exploring your own backyard can be just as rewarding.  In December, I headed a little south of London to be rewarded with two very different sorts of beauty – the Canterbury Cathedral and the Dover Cliffs.

Canterbury has been one of the core sites of Christianity in England since St Augustine founded a Cathedral there around 597.  The present Cathedral was constructed largely in the 12th and 15th centuries and is an absolute beauty.  At first I thought it was rather hilarious that Lonely Planet describes it as “immense and unrelenting” – but I soon understood what was meant as my eyes struggled to take in the wealth of detail both inside and out.

Canterbury Cathedral is infamous as the site of Archbishop Thomas Becket’s murder by King Henry II’s knights in 1170, who interpreted the King’s sigh of “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” as a direct command – as perhaps it was!  The Trinity Chapel was built to venerate Becket, who became a saint, and the candle burning marks the place of his martyrdom.

Outside, the beautiful Cloisters provided an oasis of green within the Cathedral complex, and I was fascinated by the many heraldic crests carved into the ceiling.  Equally fascinating was the detailed stonework covering the outside and featuring many famous people, including Elizabeth I.  I was not surprised to learn that the Cathedral employs a total of 17 stonemasons to replace and conserve the facade!

Next stop was the White Cliffs of Dover.  We drove straight through the town and out to the Langdon Cliffs, a National Trust site.  From here you can explore along the cliff-line – as close as you want to get!  The views over the Dover port are magnificent, and it blew my mind that Calais was only 21 miles away… just over the horizon.

The setting sun cast a magical glow over the cliffs as they turned from white to pink, although thanks to the early time of the sunset we had to sprint a bit to catch a glimpse of the historic South Foreland lighthouse.  Next time I go back I’d spend more time exploring the cliffs, and hopefully have time for the Dover Castle as well – what an amazing setting!

 Have you been to Canterbury or Dover?  What did you think?

Bits & Pieces

Canterbury is about an hour and a half drive from central London, and more information on the Cathedral can be found here

Dover is about 15 minutes drive from Canterbury, and the website for the National Trust Langdon Cliffs site is here