Cathedrals

Wherever I go on my travels- if there is a cathedral in the vicinity- I want to see it. I may admire the architecture and try to imagine the craftsmen building stone upon stone so many years ago. Most people were poor, but they managed to build grand cathedrals. In our time we complain about money and expense.

In Winchester Cathedral I visited the grave of Jane Austen. It was a simple stone slab on the floor. People could tread on it. Her relatives could not afford paying a few pounds extra for a grave closer to the altar. They had no idea that her books would still be popular almost 200 years after they were published! When central heating was installed in the 50´s, one of the pipes cut through a corner of Jane Austen´s grave. So she is nice and warm now, compared to what houses were like in her days.

So why this strange habit of visiting cathedrals? It is not only for the architecture, history or art. Maybe it is a necessary escape from our busy, high-tech, superficial, money-loving era in order to find tranquility and peace of mind.