14Jun2008: Day 20: Dover Castle

Today we drove down to Dover Castle along the coast and the White Cliffs. It was interesting to get a tour through the underground tunnels that were used to defend against Napolean as well as in World War II. They were greatly exapanded during WWII with a hospital and many communications command posts. There was a lot of Museum type things there, not as much as the Tower of London, but still well worth the trip. Here is a picture of the Castle and the White Cliffs. You can see the windows going back into the underground tunnels cut into the cliffs. One other interesting fact was that there was a third level that was planned to be used as a Nuclear bomb shelter, however it was poorly planned because the lime stone is pourous and water would have seeped the radiation down into the shelter had there been a nuclear attack.

There were also tunnels that were used back to medievel times and Teri and I walked through them individually, because we couldn't take Makenna. It was somewhat spooky walking through a place that has been around for 1000 years and where people had died. There is nothing like this level of History in the States...it is very humbling.

Dover Castle was used by Kings back to Henry II. Henry VIII used it for only several days at a time because during his time it was considered outdated. After he broke from the Roman Church, he went there to inspect the fortifications because France and Italy were threatening war. When he went there they would have to build up all sorts of fake ceilings and wall coverings to meet his standards. It did have a nice Chapel in it as well. But it has been a fortress protecting against all agression from the main continent since 1200AD. The Romans put a light house there and you can still see portions of it from that time dating back to the 1st century.

There is a church there called St. Mary's in the Castle (I'm standing in front of it with Makenna on my shoulders to the right). It has held military services since 1000AD. It fell into ruins at one point and used as coal storage, but was rebuilt in the 1700's. Unfortunately, we could not get into it. The roman light house was right next to it and while it was mostly ruins, it still was an impressive building for its height. Mostly it was made of flint and motor. Flint seems to be a widely used building material in these castles.

There is a lot of gafitti in the Castle from various prisoners that have been held there. I sat next to one and took a video of it and it was data 1709. I was sitting on a step right next to it and able to touch it. It wasn't covered at all. Anything like that in the States would be a national treasure behind glass and alarmed. Here is it everywhere you look and it is almost taken for granted.

Makenna had only one meltdown, so she did pretty well. She actually ate two whole apples...from the top down. We had to pull the stem out of her mouth because she was eating that as well.

The trip wasn't as exhausting as the Tower of London and barely anyone was there, so it was a very relaxing day. Dover is ony 50minutes from where we are right now. You can pick up a ferry or the tunnel as well near there, so it is the main gateway to Europe.