Last weekend was an amazing weekend. Paul, Liz, Chris and I booked a £7 round trip bus ride to Dover, a coastal town in Kent. The town boasts of beautiful white cliffs as well as Dover Castle. We left Saturday around 1:00 and got to Dover around 4:30, at which point we basically dropped off our things at the bed and breakfast we'd booked and went to find something to eat. We ended up at the local Wetherspoons (there happens to be one a block away from us at Wood Green) and had some paninis and beers. Well, Paul and I did, Liz had her usual garlic bread (subsequently followed by an impulse buy of ribs... she liked the bbq sauce, so much so that she got it all over her jacket). I suppose I should mention, at this point, that Liz is a notoriously picky eater, we call her 3 things, because she eats about 3 things (bread and butter/garlic bread, steak, prunes). We walked around the town a bit and found this church below, absolutely beautiful!!! After that we pretty much just headed back to the hotel room and entertained ourselves with various shinanigans including a very violent pillow fight (because we're 9 year old girls at a sleep over).
Next morning we got up (an hour too early because we set our clocks forward inaccurately) and had our free english breakfast before we checked out and left for the day. The woman at the bed and breakfast was kind enough to let us leave our things there while we hiked or we would have had some issues! We began our trek to Dover Castle (which is on a hill, but we hiked it like the champs we are), on the way we found this little area where we decided we'd take prom pictures. Here is a picture of Paul and I looking lovely together.
Once we got to the castle we took a tour of the Secret Wartime Tunnels that were run by Bertrand Ramsey during WWII. It was from there that he managed the evacuation of Dunkirk in France. It was really interesting to see how so many soldiers were able to live inside these tunnels throughout the war, though it wasn't as suffocating as I thought it might be. The picture below is of some of the white cliffs. The castle is on top of the cliffs so from the south side of the castle you get a great view of them.
Being that the castle is on the coast, the weather in the morning was typically foggy, but not too cold. We spent about 6 hours wandering around the grounds of the castle, watching the different movies and doing all of the different little activities they have for you. There was a section on Henry VIII and his wives (which reminds me, saw the Other Bolyn Girl tonight, always an interesting story). There was also a section on Henry II and Henry III. Apparently in 1216 Prince Louis of France invaded Dover and very nearly overtook the castle, which is quite a huge event. Anyways, the castle is full of almost a millennium worth of history, so much to soak in. The whole place was beautiful as well. Below is the 4 of us in front of the castle.
Aside from the castle there was a Saxon Church on the property as well as a Roman Tower (which has since turned into a bird cemetery due to the netting inside... so gross). The church had some amazing stained glass inside and was, as most old churches are, very beautifully decorated. The view from any one point on the castle grounds was amazing, you could see the whole town, the ocean and the cliffs depending on where you were. We had so much fun taking pictures, dressing up, climbing towers and just wandering. One of the best parts was that by around 2:30 in the afternoon the sky began to clear and by the time we left there was hardly a cloud to be seen. This, of course, made the view even more breathtaking and everything looked absolutely spectacular. The picture below is of the castle as we were leaving, there was a postcard in the gift shop that looked just like it!
After we left the castle we picked up our things and headed back to Wetherspoons for some much needed refueling. There was a Sunday dinner special so Liz, Chris and I jumped on it (where as Paul just opted to purchase two meals). Bread, veggies, chicken, gravy, stuffing balls and potatoes, plus a drink. Then we all had chocolate icecream bombs for dessert. By the time I got on to the bus I felt like crap and 24 hours later realized I'd gotten food poisoning, I just started feeling better this afternoon and my tummy is still a bit fragile. All part of the adventure though, right? At least I didn't have class the last two days, that made it a bit easy to just lay around feeling sorry for myself and eating crackers. While we were at the castle we all bought English Heritage memberships (we get free admission to over 400 historical sites throughout England, pretty sweet). This afternoon when I began to feel better I went with Paul to the Apsley House near Hyde Park for our first English Heritage excursion. This house is where the first Duke of Wellington lived (and all of his descendants have lived there). It is the only site that has been turned over to the country that people still live in, which means that only part of the house is open to the public. The man had an amazing art collection so it was really neat to see all of that. Plus, you get a free audio tour so of course there is much to learn about it all. After that I met Liz at the London Dungeon to use our tickets that we'd bought when we went to Madam Tussauds. I don't recommend spending money on it as it's quite expensive. For the deal we got though I'm glad we went, I just wish that we'd gotten more information about everything. You basically get a really interactive tour which means that you get really surface level information about Sweeney Todd, Jack the Ripper, the Black Plague, etc, but nothing that you haven't heard before. It is perfect for international tourism though. We tried to go to the London Eye afterwards but it wasn't operating, hopefully we can get on tomorrow! Point is, it was a wonderful weekend and has been a wonderful week so far. Hope everyone else is having as great a start to their week as I am!! Love you all, not sure that I'll have anything exciting to say before I leave for Ireland on Saturday so if not, Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!
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