Some Log Entries

This will take you to the end of the first day in Paris...I'll try to catch up ASAP. I'm uploading three sets of photos right now.

Log Entry 34: Canterbury 7/27/2005

We left Oxford this morning at 10:30 am to go to London Paddington, the first stop in our journey. We were then going to take the tube to Victoria, but the Victoria underground station was closed due to electrical problems.

So we had to get there by bus, which obviously overcrowded. However, the bus journey was not long, and it was probably cheaper than the tube. We went through the Muslim/Arabic part of town, and it was very interesting to see that side of London. Arabic script was far more prevalent than English, and the local markets were full of strange foods and products from far-off lands.

Anyway, we soon arrived at Victoria, and there was much confusion about what train we were supposed to get on. They didn't post the platform number until about 3 minutes before the train was to depart—yet more evidence that the train system here needs some revision. Still much better compared to Amtrack, though.

We arrived at Canterbury about 2:30. As we walked towards our accomodations, we took note of the old city wall. Also in this area was a Roman burial mound, from the 1st century AD.

The place we were staying was the new International Study Centre, right next to the cathedral. It was actually inside the cathedral gates, which was really cool, as this allowed us to go out late at night and take pictures. But more about this later.

Immediately after we checked in, we were allotted about an hour for free time. As we were ravishingly hungry by this time, we set out for a Burger King. A note here about British-American culture: fast food is horrendously expensive here. At Burger King, they had a 99p menu—which is almost two dollars. Portions are smaller here, too. For the same amount of money in America, you can get a huge drink and fries for what will only buy you a "large" over here—which is the same as a medium. I spent £7 at Burger King, which would have bought a decent meal of Fish & Chips elsewhere. I don't see how the English put up with it.

We next made our way back to the old city wall for pictures. The wall was made of flint, and it was very sharp. I wonder if this was an intentional layer of defense—anyone trying to climb the wall would get cut to shreds.

Finally, we headed back to the Cathedral (through the shop, of course) for a tour. We were unable to get a guide, but between Dr. Hamilton and Dr. Hanks, we had a pretty good tour. The Quire was closed due to practice for Evensong, but we were still able to see most of it. You could only take pictures if you bought a permit, so I very gladly paid £1 for that privilege.

The cathedral itself is of course world famous as the seat of the Anglican communion in the world. It is also the place where Thomas · Beckett was Martyred in 1170. This is the Archbishop of Canterbury that hundreds of generations of pilgrims—like those in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales—have come to visit and pay homage to. A cultural tangent: America really does not have anything at all like this. Perhaps only people flocking to Graceland or Washington, D.C. Even come close. Of course, part of this reason is that America is so young, but this is a tradition that does not seem to have made the leap across the sea.

The cathedral is certainly not the most ornate that we have been too, nor is it the largest. However, it is certainly the one with the most history. There are certain doorframes and stairs that have been worn thin by nearly 1000 years of pilgrims. There are also several important tombs there, most notably The Black Prince and King Henry IV. The crypt of the cathedral is one of the oldest and most intact in England; it's one of the earliest examples of gothic architecture.

After looking around the cathedral, we were once again given free time. However, I opted to stay for Evensong, which was sung by the Birmingham Cathedral choristers and lay vicars. They did the Andrew Carter Wakefeild setting, which was really neat after having worked with him last year in Scotland. I was glad that I had had time to attend a service in the home of the Anglican Communion in the world.

Following all this, we walked down to St. Martin's church, which is the oldest church still in use in England. It was in use as early as 590 AD, and earlier Roman Christian churches may have existed on the same spot. This is where Augustine set up shop in 597 until he built his abbey—the ruins of which we passed on the way to St. Martin's.

The church itself looks ancient on the outside, complete with Roman bricks forming part of the walls. However, the inside is very disappointing. Most of the stone-work has been plastered over to form smooth, white walls—a stark contrast to what the would have looked like in the 6th century. Coupled with the very modern-looking altar, this diminishes the sense of holiness in the church (at least in my opinion.

It is difficult for Americans to comprehend the scale of time in European Christianity. Our churches are only a few hundred years old (at best; most are only a few decades old). It is therefore difficult to comprehend a place that Christians have been worshipping for over 1400 years. Will Bruton Parish or similar "ancient" American churches last as long as St. Martin's? Will pilgrims flock to see these sites and hold them in awe? In this age of dis-jointed Christianity, I find it doubtful.

Following our visit to this small parish church, we headed back to the Cathedral for the evening. On the way, we stopped at "Jaspers" for some cheap pizza and a HUGE bottle of coke. The cokes actually had Arabic labels, so they must have been imported. Really odd, but it was cheap.

After it got dark, we headed outside with a tripod to get some great long exposures of the cathedral lit up at night. This trip has been really great, photography-wise; for the first time in a long time, I have enjoyed taking pictures again.

And that brings to a close our adventures in Canterbury. I think we had a much more successful journey than Chaucer's pilgrims.

Log Entry 35: Paris, Day One 7/28/2005

This morning, those of us going to Paris had to get up rather early. The walk to the train station wasn’t bad; Canterbury has two stations, and we departed a different one than we came in on. The first part of our journey to Paris consisted of our getting back to London Waterloo. Luckily, The train from Canterbury goes straight there. Because of my keen eye, I noticed that we could get on an earlier train than the one Dr. Waltman had looked up, so we got to Waterloo in plenty of time.

We had lunch at McDonald’s—Always a welcome site to those in a hurry. Security at Waterloo was pretty high; there were lots of Bobbies standing around, essentially making their presence known. Waterloo was certainly a very busy station. I would like to ask: what is the point of having the same shops within 200ft of each other? WH Smith, the magazine/book/candy shop, had probably about 5 stores in Waterloo. Have we really gotten so lazy that we can’t walk a few extra feet to a nearby magazine stand. Has everything got to be handed to us on a silver platter? This trend is also seen in American airports, and even on our road. At one point in Waco, there were 2 shell stations directly across the street from each other. In Seattle, there is literally a Starbucks on every corner. It seems absurd.

Anyway, we had plenty of time before getting on the train. The Eurostar is a lot like an airplane, except you go through customs before you get on the plane. You have to queue up before-hand, and show your boarding pass/ticket and passport. You go through x-ray machines and metal detectors, and have your passport stamped. I was amazed, however, at the contrast between this and America airport security. Security here was so easy that it felt like they weren’t checking enough. I was not even asked any questions by the passport lady; some didn’t even get their passport stamped. This is a far cry from American airports after September 11th—and even to a certain extent before. I seriously think security should be beefed up a bit on the Eurostar.

About this point, we met up with Patrick Rountree. He’s a good friend of mine from BUGWB and is doing the Baylor in Great Britain program. The Great Britain program had over 70 people going to Paris, which I thought was an insane number to keep track of. A humourous note: Cozad was called over the intercom because he left his backpack at the security station. He didn’t even notice that he didn’t pick it up. It was a good thing they called over the intercom first rather than call the authorities, which is becoming the thing to do with bags left unattended.

The Eurostar train is 18 cars long (an insane number for a passenger train), which meant once they opened the gates for boarding, we had a long walk. However, our seats were reserved, so there was no worry. We sat in coach class, which was a bit of a shock for us, as we were used to first class thanks to our BritRail pass. But the seats were still pretty nice, and I still had more legroom than I would in an airplane.

This was the first “high speed train” that I have ridden, and I must say it is nice. Although not as fast as the TGV or other bullet trains, getting to Paris in 2 hours and 30 minutes from London was pretty awesome. Interestingly, unlike the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, the Chunnel (the tunnel under the English channel) is not lit on the interior, so you have 20 minutes of darkness to look out upon.

We you exit the tunnel, you are in France. It’s quite abrupt. I was expecting it to be very similar to England: lots of trees and very green and misty. However, my first impression was that it looks a lot like Texas, especially around the Highway 6 area. It’s a bit more hilly, but the land just looks that way. Brown grasses, few trees, and rolling hills. I was quite surprised.

When we arrived at Gare du Nord, It was chaos. For one, it was raining, and two, there were people everywhere. It was quite a sight. We finally corralled everyone into one of two busses, and drove through Paris to our hotel, which was about two blocks from the Eiffel Tower—pretty cool.

Our “English Speaking Guide” on the way to the hotel was in fact, Korean, though she did speak English. It was just a bit odd. The French “hatred” of the English was immediately noticeable, as she “joked” about how the English didn’t want their high speed train technology (even though the English INVENTED railroads) and other points. Certainly not racism, but you can see how a long-term deep-seated hatred of a culture can eventually permeate itself into everything.

The hotel was very nice—right next to the Paris Hilton, actually (snicker…). The only stupid things were the elevator and the lights in the room. The elevator only let you push what you wanted outside the elevator. This meant that once you got on the elevator, there was no way to change what floor you wanted if you made a mistake or changed your mind. The other thing—the lights—was equally silly. You had to put your key in a slot by the door in order for the electricity in the room to work. This meant lots of people locking themselves out. Luckily, we discovered that it was just a light sensor, so we were able to put a piece of paper in the slot instead of our key.

We didn’t have much time before our evening boat cruise, so there was a quick run to a Brasserie near the Tour Eiffel to get food. That was a mistake. The food was good and relatively cheap (5,50 Euro for a Hot Dog) but the Coke I had to drink (didn’t look at the menu first) was 7 euros. Insane. Never did find a coke in Paris for under 3 at a Brasserie, and the cheapest bottle I found was 1,80. Crazy. I don’t understand how it can be so expensive.

After this meal (which Dr. Waltman paid for—thanks Dr. Waltman), we went down near the Louvre for our boat cruise on the Seine. Some people waited until after dark to go on the cruise, but we went about sunset, which led to some dramatic shots. There’s not much to tell, as it was mostly a sight-seeing tour from the river, but it was a lot of fun.

Finally, we got back to the room and headed to bed, as our call time in the morning (our first of two full days) was bright and early at 7:45 AM.