.
April
5 -14
PREFACE
During the winter of
2002, we decided that we would like to go to England to visit cathedrals.
This was the first trip that has resulted in our CATHEDRAL QUEST and has
led to, presently, fourteen trips to
explore 265 of the great churches of Europe.
We decided that we
would take our English trip on our own rather than an organized tour.
Not wanting to drive “on the wrong side of the road”, we planned on traveling from town to town on the train.
With the help of a travel agent and the internet, we made all of our
hotel reservations.
As a docent at the
Washington Cathedral, I had given some private, behind the scenes tours.
I wrote to St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey in London, Canterbury,
Salisbury, Bath, Wells and Winchester Cathedrals and told them that I was an
Episcopal Priest and a docent at the Washington Cathedral and would like to have
a
private tour. I had responses
from all of them.
This preface is an
overview of this trip. I will soon
add our daily adventures in great detail, histories and observations of all the
churches, other attractions that we visited, hotels and restaurants that we
enjoyed.
We began our
CATHEDRAL QUEST in London with a private tour of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Sunday
service at Westminster Abbey and other London attractions.
We took the train to Canterbury where we stayed at a unique hotel on the
cathedral grounds. My letter
resulted in an unbelievable tour of Canterbury Cathedral.
While in Canterbury, we took the train to Leed’s Castle for an
interesting visit. We returned to
London to change trains for Salisbury. Salisbury
Cathedral was magnificent and our special three hour private tour was extremely detailed
and fascinating. We took at side
trip on a bus to Stonehenge. From
Salisbury, we rode the train to Bath. After
settling in our hotel, we boarded a local bus – great fun! – to Wells for a
wonderful experience at Wells Cathedral.
Back in Bath, we had an exceptional tour of Bath Abbey, and were blessed
to be there to celebrate a very special Palm Sunday service, complete with a
donkey. We took the train back
to London with one more night before we boarded the plane for home.
