St Augustine's Abby &Tiny Tim's Tearoom Canterbury, England

Today we visited St. Augustine's Abby Ruins in Canterbury, England.  It was 10.50 pounds to get in per adult.  There is a small Museum before you see the ruins.  I found the small Museum quite interesting because it gives you the chronological history of when St. Augustine first came from Rome in the 500s to set up an abbey in England.

When you go out to look at the ruins, they are somewhat interesting.  They are still in the process of excavating and developing the site.  Some of the artifacts found on site are now currently in the museum.  

The Cathedral is in the background in the middle of the picture.  The Abby ruins are just outside the walled city.

I did not know that when King Henry VIII gave the decree to deconstruct the hundreds of Abbys in England, they actually did destroy many of them and completely dismantled them.  The only Abbys left standing are the ones that were too far out of the way or those that weren't made of the stone or rock that were in demand to be sold off to build Manor houses, etc.  St Augustine's Abby was taken apart and the stones were used to make the Royal Palace, who knew?

King Ethelbert and his Queen Bertha of Germany are below.  Ethelbert was the first English King to convert to Christianity in 597 BC.  Bertha already had.

I learned a good many things about history but another interesting little tidbit was that George Beer used to own a brewery and hence that's where the name of beer came from.

Personally, I found the other friaries, priories and abby ruins that we visited previously on our trip to be much more interesting and much more authenticly intact not to mention free.  Other than the tiny Museum at St Augustine I personally would not pay the 10.50 pounds to go and see it.  I would not recommend this unless you're not ever going to see any other Abby ruins again in your life.

Tiny Tim's Tearoom is quite a nice little tearoom in an ancient old house.  This is located in the walled city of Canterbury.  The scone of the day was an apple with apricot glaze.  The scone was huge and it was undoubtedly the best tasting and best-textured scone l have ever had in my life.  Mind you I did pay a pretty penny for it.  I wanted to taste fresh clotted cream again because I had it in Scotland in 2010 and sorry Tiny Tim's, this did not compare but it was the second-best clotted cream I've ever had.  The clotted cream was an extra 1.50 pounds.  It also included strawberry jam.  The experience of eating at Tiny Tim's is worth it.  When you enter the building you realize how ancient it is with the old timbers showing in the walls and ceiling.  When you really notice it is when you go up their staircase which is actually hard to maneuver because it is so slanted.  When you get to the third floor with the toilets you really have to watch where you're stepping because the floors are slanted and crooked and then you realize that you are in a building from a very different millennium.  It was totally worth going for the scone and for the experience.

The wonky slanted windows of the Tearoom.

Inside by the snug in the backroom of the Tearoom with the timbers in the ceiling.

The Cathedral gate is close by

The WWII war memorial is also close by.