On January 26th Taylor and I took a trip up to Peterborough to visit the Cathedral which was celebrating Katharine of Aragon (who is buried there). It was a beautiful, sunny day (which is rare here) and the train ride up took about 1.5 hours. Peterborough is a really small town, but beautiful. The town square consists of a really old church in the centre and further along is the beautiful cathedral.
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| Town Square |
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| The Cathedral and tiny little me! |
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Since this day was honouring Katharine of Aragon there was people dressed in period costumes telling you about food, weapons, and various other Tudor things. There was also people dressed up as Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon, with Tudor minstrels, and guards in livery. We wandered around the Cathedral just looking at the breathtaking architecture.
Since I discovered Tudor history I have always been fascinated with Katharine of Aragon. Many people assume that my favourite historical person is Henry VIII, but they would be wrong, it's Katharine of Aragon. She was such a strong willed, intelligent woman. I mean how many woman are known to have stood their ground against Henry VIII and his ministers? Not many. Not only that, but she was raised by one of the fiercest warrior queens in European history and as the regent of England while Henry VIII was in France she planned a battled against the Scots that got the King of Scotland killed! She is amazing. I have always wanted to go to Peterborough Cathedral to see her grave and never thought it was possible so it was absolutely spectacular to be able to visit it in person.
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| I'm a nerd, I brought my Henry VIII and Katharine dolls for a cute little photoshoot. |
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After I visited the grave there began a huge show of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon processing through the Cathedral and then hearing "petitions" from the audience, as well as the audience learning how to properly address and king and hearing Tudor music. After I got to take some photos with the re-enactors.
After this event Taylor and I had a few hours to kill before our train ride so we got some lunch and then wandered around the small town. Then the real adventure began. We got on the train at 7:30 and after about 30 minutes of not departing we got an announcement that there was a signal problem along the route and we would be stuck here for a little bit. At 9pm we are told there is still a problem and they will order us taxis to take us to our destination. So we wait for the taxis in the pouring rain and they arrive, the one heading to Norwich was a giant one for like 10 people, but there was 12 of us. So Taylor being the idiot/gentleman that he is offered two young ladies to go and we would wait for the next one. Problem was, they didn't order another taxi. So after frantically speaking to the train staff (who were rude and unhelpful) we found out there were no more taxis and we would need to take a train departing at 10:30, switch at some town and then go to Norwich. So the train was full of drunks on one end and very cranky people on the other. After all this we finally got back to our flat at 1a.m and I had to go right to bed as I worked the next morning at 9:45.
