Howells in a Castle

Friday 30^th September 2016

Up at 6:30am this morning, as we needed to have breakfast and catch the tube to St Pancras Station for our tip to Dover.

Weather is expected to be fine but cool with 18°.

Caught the tube from Lancaster Gate at 8:30am then changed at Oxford Circus to the Victoria line for the tip to St Pancras.

We boarded the Javelin Train (Very fast trail) at 9:37am and disembarked at Folkestone Central at 10:50am and got a taxi to Dover Castle. The Taxi driver asked why we got off at Folkstone. When we told him we had been told the rail line to Dover Priory was out of service due to a storm washing away part of the rail bed. He said it was reopened about a month ago.

Dover Castle is fantasticly preserved. Henry II built the tower in 1180’s. His son’s King John and Richard The Lionhart added to the castle, which was completed by King John’s son Henry III. There is an intact Roman light house in the grounds.

Herny VIII also used the castle.

The castle sits at the top of the White Cliffs of Dover and there is an extensive tunnel system through the cliffs dating back to Napoleonic times. Most recently the tunnels were used during the cold war to as a bomb shelter for the British Government in the event of a nuclear attack.

We did the tour of the WWII tunnels and saw an audio visual display of how the evacuation of Dunkirk was planned and managed which saw 345,000 Allied soldiers evacuated.

AS it was starting to rain we had lunch in the café at the Castle. The rain stopped just as we were finishing lunch so we climber to the top of the Castle Tower where the views were excellent and we got a great view of the “White Cliffs”. As the cloud also cleared we were able to see across the 21 of the English Chanel to The coast of France.

The castle also has a lovely Church, which dated to the Saxon times, and is the finest preserved Saxon church in Kent.

The church continues to be used for worship today. During WWII services were actually conducted during air raids.

We finished at 4:00pm and walked into Dover. On the way I saw a barbershop so stopped and got my hair cut.

When we got to Dover Priory Railway station we bought an extension ticket which so we would not have to go back to Folkestone. The train left Dover and arrived in St Pancras at 6:00pm.

We hopped on the tube back to Lancaster Gate and had dinner at the Swan Inn, Steak & ale pie and a pint of ale for me. Lynne had fish & chips and a glass of wine.

All up we walked 10.5klm’s today so did not feel guilty about the chips.