In England with PGP

 Dear Currier,

PGP in the 12th Century Village of Castle Acre

Castle Acre Priory

We hope you had a great spring break. It brought us a welcome contact with Currier when PGP came to stay with us in the other Cambridge. She detected many similarities between Currier and the Cambridge Colleges despite Currier's lack of a giant chapel.  Indeed as we traveled around it was hard to avoid huge churches and her holiday had a definite ecclesiastical bent as we visited Kings College Chapel Cambridge,  Ely Cathedral and the ruins of the 11th Century Cluniac Monastery of Castle Acre in Norfolk.

PGP listening to the audia guide at Castle Acre

We decided that this is because so much of English history is tied up with the church and indeed the various stages of building of Kings College Chapel closely follow the history of the War of the Roses and the marriages of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, whose initials and crests can be seen carved into walls and woodwork. We traced the increasing corruption and decadence of the 16th Century Roman Catholic church in England in the ruins of Castle Acre Priory and saw destructive impact of the reformation which reduced the priory from one of the most richly decorated in Europe to its present magnificent skeleton.

Patricia wearing her red nose

On a lighter note we also supported the fund raising efforts of UK charity Comic Relief by celebrating Red Nose day.

Good luck with the last half of the semester. We hope that you have exciting plans for the summer and we look forward to hearing what you have been up to in September.

All the best

Elizabeth and Richard