Worcester Cathedral, a quick look.

Today we finished the shopping for our pending holiday in Florida, well I hope we did, all the new clothes I appear to need seem to be costing more than the holiday. I just don't see what's wrong with my shorts, alright they've faded a bit and have a few spots of paint on them but so what? Who's going to be looking at me? It's a holiday, not a fashion show. For any Americans reading this, that's shorts as in shorts, not as in underpants, O.K? We also had to buy suitcases, apparently my old backpack is not suitable.
Well, after having battered the bank card into submission a quiet afternoon looking at the cathedral seemed to be in order.

 Do you know you have to cough up £3 for a permit to take photo's in the place? So any of you looking at the pictures had better enjoy them.
The entrance is through The Edgar Tower

and a close examination seemed to promise plenty of graffiti,

1777 was the earliest I spotted and intriguingly

my initials, perhaps in a former life?

Once inside you start to feel dwarfed by the vast space of the nave and quire.

Unlike many cathedrals they haven't cluttered the space with nasty tubular metal chairs. High above you the roof is richly decorated

with all manner of saints etc.

Jill spotted this stone set in the floor, the inscription is miserrimus, she said they must have put it there just for me, she can be very cutting at times.
There are plenty of tombs, as usual,

Edward Edes, he was The Dean from 1597 to 1604.
This pair

were Sir John Beauchamp (Pronounced Beecham) and his wife, apparently they cosied up to Richard the Second which upset some of the other Lords and consequently they ended up under here a bit quicker than they expected, politics was for real in those days.
The really posh tombs were Prince Arthur's,

elder brother of Henry VIII and first husband of Catherine of Aragon, it's in its own chantry chapel,

very upmarket.
My favourite was

King John, a thoroughly nasty piece of work, ended up signing Magna Carta and then losing his crown jewels in The Wash. Also a good friend of the Sheriff of Nottingham and arch enemy of Robin Hood.

The reredos in the Jesus Chapel is a stunning piece of Victorian wood carving while that behind the High Altar is just as breathtaking in marble.

The East Window

and the only bit of half decent graffiti I found inside the building, unfortunately the perpetrator didn't get round to carving a date.

The crypt is the oldest part of the cathedral and dates back to 1084, it is now a chapel for private prayer, a haven of peace.
Our final stop was in the old Chapter House,

where the shades of the old ecclesiastics must gaze in amazement at today's secular visitors slurping tea and scoffing chocolate cake.
All in all it is a beautiful and impressive monument to the human spirit, well worth a visit.

Watch this space.............