England
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Here's the second page of my England pictures!
Kent
Kent County in Eastern England is the home of Dover and Canterbury, two places we visited on May 18.
This is a building that was inside the walls of Dover Castle. I think the building was a church at one point. Dover Castle has been an important part of Britain's defense since it was built in the late 12th century. The castle is in a great location to defend the English Channel, continental Europe's main route to England. Because of this, Dover has been instrumental throughout England's history and even during World War II.
The famous white cliffs of Dover!
This is the market square in Canterbury. You can't see the sign, but the shop on the left is a "Reject China Shop." Those are quite popular in England. They're kind of like outlet stores for fine china.
This is a window inside Canterbury Cathedral. Those little orange things at the bottom are chairs, so you can imagine how huge this nave is. The pilgrims in Canterbury Tales came to this cathedral because Thomas Abeckett was murdered here and became a martyr.
This is a view of the spire of Canterbury Cathedral. The ruins you see in the foreground are the remains of St. Augustine's abbey. This was the first church in England, and to this day the Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the Anglican Church.
Blenheim Palace and Stratford-on-Avon
We went to both of these places May 19. Blenheim Palace is the Churchill family's estate, and William Shakespeare was from Stratford.
This is the main entrance to Blenheim Palace. Winston Churchill was born here, but because he is not in the royal line, he did not grow up at the palace. Look how small the people seem on the front steps. This place was huge!
This is part of the gardens, my favorite part of Blenheim Palace. Someone obviously spent many hours landscaping the grounds.
Here's another part of the gardens. The ponds in both of these pictures had ponds mirroring them so they were perfectly symmetrical.
This is Shakespeare's birthplace.
Shakespeare bought this home after his plays made him rich. I don't know if the structure was always slanted, but many of the surviving 17th century half-timbered buildings are even more crooked than this one.
This is the garden at New Place, the home pictured above.
In the lawn behind New Place, several statues represented different Shakespearean plays; I think this one is The Tempest.