Dover

Yesterday I got up early and headed south for the winter. Or for the day at least. And I don't think I went far enough south for it to make much of a difference. But I did get to see one of the coolest natural wonders: The White Cliffs of Dover.

Dover Castle.

Part of it dates as far back as the Romans but most of it is from the 1100's during the reign of King Henry II.

Obviously being a castle it was on top of the hill. Meaning a nice steep hike up to it. It got pretty hot.

The grounds are so well kept that it almost looks fake. The building in the middle is the working church and the tower that that is just to the right with the top partially missing on the right is the building dating back to the Romans. It was originally a lighthouse but when the church was built it became a bell tower.

Being the day before Halloween there were Ghost Tours of the castle grounds. Our guides were all dressed in white and were telling scary stories that made the children very frightened and when the guides had our focus on them witches, like this one, appeared behind us screaming and telling tales of woe about how she was unfairly tried for being a witch. (She weighed the same as a duck unfortunately.)

This is the place to bring small boys because they are a ton of things to climb on and have fun with.

It was a clear morning but as the day went on the clouds blew in. But you can still see the town of Dover. It was a nice, quiet place.

During the many wars that England has been involved with there have been tunnels built into the cliffs. This is one. This is one of the tunnels that Vice-Admiral Bertrum Ramsey commanded Operation Dynamo in which over 300,000 Allied forces were rescued from Dunkirk, France after the Battle of Dunkirk. It was pretty cool to walk through them.

And here are the White Cliffs that you've all been waiting for. The castle is on the top left and the clouds had come to stay for the rest of the day by mid-afternoon. But you can totally see the White Cliffs of Dover!!!

The sun setting on the Channel.

Facts about the cliffs:

they are made from chalk which is why they are white.

they are eroding.

because of the erosion England gets 2-5 centimeters further away from France every year (but ask any Brit, they don't mind that at all).

everything in Dover is bilingual in English-French, which surprised me because of how much the English still don't like the French.

it is way cool to sit on the beach and look up to see white cliffs.