Dover Castle, Wartime Tunnels, and White Cliffs

This weekend we decided to do an overnight trip down south. We got up bright and early Saturday morning and drove the three hours to Dover. Dover is home to the Dover Castle, the Dover port, and the picturesque White Cliffs. The weather was supposed to be 23 C and sunny, well, in true English form it was flipping cold and windy until about 2:30 in the afternoon. All we had brought with us were clothes for warm weather, but I did happen to throw in the kids' coats and a cardigan for myself. Poor Kevin didn't grab his coat or any long pants or even a long sleeved shirt so he just had to double up on T-shirts.

The first thing we did was tour the Secret Wartime Tunnels of the White Cliffs. Dover has been an important part of British defenses for a very long time. Soon after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William the Conquer erected the first castle. From the early 1700's to 1945 it continued to be updated to keep up with needs during each European war England was involved in. So it is interesting to see the mix of old castle where knights fought against the invading French and also WWI and WWII artillery guns scattered around.

There is a huge maze of tunnels throughout the White Cliffs and you get to tour of the command centre used by Winston Churchill during the Battle of Britain and where almost 700 personelle were stationed during WWII. Also it is most strongly known for the where Vice Admiral Ramsey carried out "Operation Dynamo" where they evacuated British and Allied soldiers from Dunkirk - some 338,000 in May 1940. It is an amazing story of how they got all those soldiers across the channel, and I learned more about WWI than I think I can remember from my high school days. The tour is set up to have you follow along a wounded soldier in 1918 and you get to go through the underground hospital, the kitchen, sleeping quarters, communications centers and more.

Just before going on the tour I saw this old telephone switch box and was playing around with it. It is amazing during the tour to see how all the women were heavily involved with the operations in the tunnel from communications to moving positions on maps in the command centre. Small jobs that probably were very critical during a really trying time.

This is map that one famous veteran brought in that was drawn out when they planned D-Day. It was an estimate of how far in troops were expected to be able to over take France. D was the first day of invasion, D+5 was where they were to be 5 days after the invasion. The plaque below it said that the predictions ended up being pretty darn close.

We weren't supposed to take any pictures inside the tunnels but I was a rebel and wanted one anyway. I did get scolded by one of the staff but this is the command centre where they would get updates on troop and boat positions to plan out British war efforts.

After the tunnels we painstakingly ate our packed lunch out on the grounds of the castle. It's good that there are really tall walls around the castle because it made for good wind protection. Next we headed to the Great Tower which opened up a new exhibition just this August. King Henry II was one of England's most powerful rulers and he was father to Richard "The Lionheart" and Bad King John and had a very strong willed wife, Eleanor (all pre-Robin Hood days I guess).

The Great Tower is all decorated up to show what it may have looked like in medieval times. This is one of the bedroom chambers. They have actors playing different parts and also have video imagery of other characters through out the tower.

Most of the older castles we see are all empty and feel cold with stone, but this was really cool to see "new" things in it to know what it might have really felt like when it is warm and full of tapestries, rugs, and painted woods. The kitchen was really cool. They had fake food set up all over and bit pots and other kitchen tools.

Addison had this huge obsession with finding the "Good Knight" the whole time we were at the castle. She say a man dressed up as a knight when we first got there and we could never find him again, but our quest was to keep looking. It ended up being a great way to keep her moving throughout the castle, and when we found the "knight's" metal netting and saddle she was pretty excited.

There were lots of old canons still positioned all over the grounds. Addison had a lot of fun climbing on all of them and poking her head around them and got really up close and personal with this one.

After a lot of walking around through more tunnels and around the grounds it was about time to stop for an ice cream. The weather was finally warming up and it was turning out to be a wonderful day.

As we walked along the walls we ran into the anti-aircraft guns and I said to Addie, "Look at the guns!" She looked at me and said "Look at these guns" and she kissed her arm. Yes, this is what happens when you let an uncle teach mindless things to his niece (thanks Casey).

After leaving the castle we drove out of town looking for a way to see the White Cliffs. It seemed that the only way we were going to see them is either out on a boat or walking along a public footpath. The kids were wiped out so we didn't attempt the footpath and thought we would get out on a boat next year when we take our Baltic Capitals cruise. We did get some really neat views of the castle because of our driving around.

As we were leaving Dover I decided I needed at least one picture of the Cliffs so I grab a shot out the window as we drove through town.

As we stood on an overlook, we could see down to the port where hundreds of vehicles were loading up to ride the ferry across the channel to places like Belgium and France.

We headed out to our bed and breakfast which was a pretty unique place out in the middle of no where. The Black Horse Inn is the top rated accommodation in Maidstone but it's really located in a tiny little village that you have to drive on a one lane road to get there and beware of large farm equipment along the way. It was an amazing pub that was all decorated inside with dried hops and wheat bunches.

Our room was really cool as well. Addison loved that she got to sleep on the top of a bunk bed. We brought our own pack and play so that Harry had safer sleeping arrangements but it was little difficult trying to get him to fall asleep when we were all in the same room together. We watched the finale of America's Got Talent and Karate Kid. Plus our bathroom was handicap accessible so there was no shower curtain and the shower head was just in the corner of the room...way weird, but it was a pretty neat place.