Dover Castle - United Kingdom

Posted 8.May; back-dated to 28.April for chronological consistency.

We first saw Dover Castle from the ferry as we arrived in the port. It holds court from the top of the cliff and would be difficult to miss. After settling in to the campground, we ventured off on the bus to Dover. We have an uncanny knack for missing buses. This time, we rode our bikes down the lane and were literally getting off as the bus (a full 5 minutes early) went roaring past. 30-minutes later, the next arrived and we were off!

We found the walking path easily enough - though there is only one signpost at the corner of the path. A long walk up, and we were met with a decision. Would this really be worth £25 (about $50 USD when you do the conversion)?

Yes, Sophia is posing. The path to the castle.

We made it!

Not only were we NOT disappointed, we went for the English Heritage scheme and got our £20 by spending the £42 and signing up for a year's membership! The membership allows free entry for the family to most of the 400 properties managed by English Heritage along with an offer of half off facilities in Scotland. Love it! Plus, they provided us a handy member package including a map with all sights and an informational book to provide context. We found ourselves wishing that something similar had been available in the rest of Europe.

Back to Dover Castle - first order of business was to quickly get to the entrance to the Secret Wartime Tunnels (after a pit stop of course, of which there are several strategically located). The woman at the ticket office was kind enough to slip us in to the earliest time slot and not in with the group of school kids who arrived at the same time as us.

The tunnels are perhaps best known for the "Operation Dynamo" in May 1940 which resulted in the rescue of 338,000 soldiers from Dunkirk, France (original estimates had been they could only rescue 45,000). A guided tour with multimedia effects lasts about an hour. Visitors follow the path a wounded solider might have taken during the course of arrival, treatment and recovery in the hospital wing. We moved on to some of the communications rooms and even got to peek at the "loo with a view" - one of the only rooms in the maze of tunnels that had a window to the outdoors. Some of the effects were almost a bit silly- but the overall effect left us appreciating the role the tunnels played during war time and understanding the working conditions of the men and women who lived in the tunnels.

Not so secret anymore.

Surfacing, we were awestruck again by the enormity of the site. We found our way to the main entrance & membership office (quite by accident). Onward, we followed a path and surfaced at the site of the Siege of 1216 exhibit. It was another multimedia experience but quite fun. Lots of information delivered during a fairly short audio presentation.

Roaming onward, it took a while to find the way in to the castle itself. We finally did and had a ball exploring the rest of the castle in which the Siege exhibit is performed. One can almost get lost in the various rooms and hallways of the castle. The exhibit theme was dealing with preparing for Henry VIII's arrival and helped set the stage to understand how many staff resided on site and how each of the rooms may have been utilized.

Diagram of the castle grounds.

Royal entrance.

More stairs...

We were utterly exhausted after climbing to the top of the castle tower. All smiles and thoroughly thrilled with the experience and with the opportunity to explore more of the English Heritage sites we wandered back into town and to our little house on wheels. Too bad we can't live at the residence inside Dover Castle... could you imagine the parties we could throw? (yes, there really is a private residence just inside - I think it was titled the "Constable of Dover Castle")