The Pfeiffer Chapel inspires me to go off on a bit of a religious tangent. This is a picture of the porch of Ely Cathedral. Ely doesn't have the grace of Salisbury or the sheer power of York Minster; a piece of it fell down a few centuries back and they never bothered to replace it; Cromwell shut it down for a while and used it to stable his cavalry. Despite all this, Ely is something on its own. It dominates the surrounding countryside. You can't get lost anywhere northeast of Cambridge because the cathedral is always there. It is built on the Isle of Ely that at one time was truly an island for much of the year. The fens have been drained, but are still as flat as a pancake. The Isle and its Cathedral stand out above all else.

It seemed appropriate to me that there was a phantom in the photograph, hovering around the door, watching us as we come and go. The cathedral itself stands above all that. Unlike the Pfeiffer Chapel, the cathedral is purely and simply a monument to God. Whether it contains a thousand people or no one makes very little difference (so it seems to me anyway). Incidentally, don't read this as denigrating the Pfeiffer chapel, they are simply different buildings with different raison d’être.

If you're ever lucky enough to get to Ely, try if you can, to hear some music performed in the Lady Chapel. It is acoustically one of the most beautiful spaces in Europe.