April 8

Today, we drove down to Dover to tour the Castle and War Tunnels. WOW! What an awesome feat of construction. There are close to 4 miles of tunnels built into the limestone cliffs, on 4 levels. The English war effort in the second world war was directed from here. There was a fully equipped hospital, command center, and barracks here. There are a maze of tunnels criss-crossing below the ground. From what we heard, the fact that there was anything underground was impossible to tell from the air, and it was a complete secret.

It took us a close to four hours to go through the whole complex, and we actually missed the "Medieval tunnels" in the back of the castle as it was getting too difficult for Jan to walk down them and back up. At one point we came to a spiral staircase which went up to the roof. I suggested that Jan head down to continue the tour, while I went up. There were 70 steps to the very top from that point, and 117 steps back down to ground level! I'd hate to go running up and down that staircase in time of a conflict. In one of the display rooms, I learned how to count on an abacus. Now I know how orientals can count so fast!

The views from the castle were unbelievable. France can be seen as a dark line on the horizon. There are large numbers of ships sailing by, and the ferry traffic appears unending.



After we had some lunch, we proceeded up the coast to Walmer castle, which at one time was lived in by the Queen mother. It is right on the coast, with only a narrow (see previous blogs and pictures LOL) roadway, a bike path and the beach between it and the ocean.



We were quite impressed with the interior, although we were unable to take pictures. It is laid out slightly differently from most other castles we've seen. Unlike others, this one has a "house" built into the walls. And behind the castle there is a very nice garden with a large swimming pool sized goldfish pond.

It was now getting later in the afternoon, and we decided to head back to our hotel. Then we drove into Canterbury for a nice steak and prawn dinner. Tomorrow we're off to the south coast.