We will meet up in Winchester around midday, and get checked in to the Winchester Royal Hotel. We’ll have afternoon tea to recover from flights and travel. After a short orientation to the trip as a whole, we’ll take a walking tour of the city of Winchester, an early medieval seat of royal government and one of the most important cathedral cities in the kingdom.

We’ll start the day, as many pilgrims did, at the Hospital of St. Cross a mile south of the city. After exploring this site – a medieval institution still functioning according to its founder’s goals – we’ll walk into the city along the beginning of the Pilgrim’s Way. We’ll get a tour of the stunning cathedral, and allow time to explore the place independently. To finish the day, we’ll attend evensong at the cathedral, joining the nearly 1400-year history of worship in this spot.

Our first real walking day. We’ll pick up the Pilgrim’s Way at the Cathedral, and follow it north along the Itchen Valley, the first leg in the journey to Canterbury. Along the way, we’ll stop at small parish churches – a contrast to the colossal cathedral, but at least as fundamental to the spiritual lives of the people who have lived in these villages in the last thousand years. Lunch will be at a historic inn. In the early evening, we’ll take one of the frequent buses back to Winchester. (Walking ~9 miles)

Today we’ll check out of the Winchester Royal Hotel, and begin moving toward Canterbury. We’ll participate in Sunday worship at a medieval parish church with an anchorite’s cell, and take time for a slow prayer practice in the peaceful ruins of Waverley Abbey, the first English monastery of the Cistercian reform movement. To finish the day, we’ll arrive in Guildford, a coaching town situated in a gap in the Downs on the road south from London. Tonight, we stay at The Angel Hotel in the heart of the town, at the foot of a walking street with shops and cafes, just downhill from the castle ruins.

Remaining in the environs of Guildford, we’ll pick up the Pilgrim’s Way and walk to St. Martha’s on the Hill, a spot with a long history of worship, where many pilgrims have paused and still pause. From there, we’ll walk east along the ridge of the Downs, with views to the south, and finish our day in Shere, a quaint village on the river Tillingbourne. We’ll return to Guildford for the night. (Walking ~ 7 miles.)

Today we take a longer journey, using modern technology to bypass some of the modern obstacles that lie across the Pilgrim’s Way in east Surrey and west Kent (principally the motorways). Among other explorations and rambles, we’ll stop at another major gap in the Downs to visit a small church with a nearby neolithic monument – a reminder of the many layers of human history carved into this landscape. This evening, we’ll eat supper at the Friars in Aylesford, where we’ll stay.

We’ll begin the day at the Friars, a medieval monastic complex which now operates as a Catholic priory and retreat center. This is the closest we moderns will come to the experience of medieval pilgrims, who frequently begged lodgings at monasteries – but don’t worry, you’ll have your own room! After a quiet morning enjoying the beauty and spiritual “thinness” of this place, and engaging in a guided spiritual practice, we will travel to Wye in the Kentish Downs, where we’ll have lunch and take a circular walk with wide views across Kent to the south. We’ll spend the night in Chilham at The Woolpack, an inn dating at least from the fifteenth century. (Walking ~5.5 miles.)

Our final day of walking! Picking up the Pilgrim’s Way in Chilham, we’ll walk the final miles into Canterbury. After a break to rest our legs and refuel, we’ll join evensong at Canterbury Cathedral – the first cathedral in England, and the site of enormous devotional attention due to the martyrdom of Thomas Becket within its walls in 1170. After a well-earned dinner, we’ll return to our rooms for the night. (Walking ~8 miles.)

Today we go back in time, with a tour of Canterbury. We’ll visit the oldest parish in the English-speaking world, the city walls, and the twelfth-century Eastbridge hospital (which now operates as an almshouse). Finally, we’ll take a tour of Canterbury Cathedral, and leave time to explore the complex and rich structure independently.

We’ll finish our time together with a visit to the Greyfriars’ Gardens, the site of a Franciscan house first established in the thirteenth century, and now open for prayer and contemplation. We’ll wrap up the formal tour in the late afternoon. At that point, you may take one of the frequent trains to London for flights out on Sunday morning. You’re also welcome to arrange privately to stay another night in your room in Canterbury.