Dover stuff I forgot

 

July 9

One of the interesting things we noticed in Dover had to do with pedestrian power.  When you get to a crosswalk with a button to push to get the “walk” light, here in Dover, the light changes almost immediately and traffic stops and you cross and the light turns right back to let traffic continue.  I love that.

Also, parking is very lenient.  They park heading in both directions.  Sometimes they park with one wheel on the sidewalk.  Sometimes with the entire car on the sidewalk.

                                          

Some sail away pictures….

  

the castle and then the cliffs

                         

                          Sunset lighting on the castle

 

                                                                                             

Rest of the day after the Castle

July 7
From the castle you can see across the English Channel.  Calais, France is only 32 miles away.  That is why this castle was so important.
        
Did you notice the sailboat?
After leaving the castle we decided to ride the bus to see some of the surrounding area.
We were hoping we could see the castles in Deal and Walmer, but this is the only view we got of the castles.
                                                   
The English countryside is lovely.  We even saw a windmill.  Didn’t know there were windmills her in Britain.

      

Does anyone have any idea what this is?  We can’t figure it out.

                                                
One thing we noticed, that we don’t see in the US, is that every time a passenger leaves the bus, they either say “thank you” to the driver.  That included youngsters. 

Dover Castle part 2

We took a land train around the castle grounds.  The driver was very friendly and helpful.  He rode us around in this little train.
                                          

The first place we visited was the underground tunnels. 
We could not take pictures in the tunnels.  What they had set up down in the tunnels was a war experience.  They gave us a feeling of what it is like to be in the tunnels during the war.  Then we got the story of the Dunkirk rescue.  That happened when the Germans had pushed the Allied forces back to Dunkirk.  They were stuck on the beaches with the Germans encroaching.  The English sent war ships to pick up the troops. 
“On the first day of the evacuation, only 7,669 men were evacuated, but by the end of the eighth day, a total of 338,226 soldiers had been rescued by a hastily assembled fleet of over 800 boats. Many of the troops were able to embark from the harbour's protective mole onto 39 British destroyers and other large ships, while others had to wade out from the beaches, waiting for hours in the shoulder-deep water. Some were ferried from the beaches to the larger ships by what came to be known as the little ships of Dunkirk, a flotilla of hundreds of merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft, and lifeboats called into service for the emergency.”  Wikipedia
When you get out of the tunnels you can see how they are right in the white cliffs
                                                               
For about 10 years in the 1700’s during the War of Spanish Succession,the castle was used as a prison.  Some of the prisoners left their mark.

  This one says “Pierre loves breasts”  Boys will be boys even in prison.
  Some of the rooms are set up to show how they were.  This is the king’s bedchamber.
The tunnels that were called the midieval tunnels allowed pictures.
  notice the rope railings

 

notice the different wall materials                     
More pictures of the castle


                                                            
           see the catapult?

Dover Castle, England Part 1

 

July 7

Today we finally went to Dover Castle.  We see the castle every time we go outside.  I have to warn you….I love castles and this one is wonderful.

It was built in 1180’s by Henry II.  It had been added onto and reinforced many times over those 2,000 years.  Tunnels were built in the 1700’s to protect from the French.  Some were reused during world war II.

                                          

First, here are some pictures of the outside of the tower, the other castle buildings and the views from the castle.  This post will have to be in more than one.

   Duane is standing on a real draw bridge

       This is the entrance to the Great Tower

This is one of the views from the top (way up on top via a stone spiral staircase. 5 stories of them.)

                 

            

 

                                                

Canterbury Cathedral

July 5
So we finally went to see the cathedral. 
                                        
This is the main entrance to the Cathedral area.
It is impossible to show how huge this building is.  It was originally made for monks.  They kept adding on as the number of pilgrims grew.  The pilgrims were and still are coming here to worship Saint Thomas.  Thomas Becket was the Archbishop of Canterbury when Henry VIII was king.  Henry was not happy with the Catholic Church since the Pope would not let him divorce his wife.  So, Henry is said to have complained about the Archbishop and some of his knights killed him.  They sliced a piece of his skull off and the brain matter that flew out is said to have performed miracles right then.  So the faithful still pilgrim here.
                                               
This is a picture of about 1/5 of the church.
               
                                       
Around the church are many, many sculptures but no paintings.  It seems that during the time that the Puritans were in power, the church was white washed and the paintings removed and statues had their heads chopped off.  This is one of the few paintings saved.
                                                             
           
                                                
This is the burial place of one of the archbishops.  He had this built 14 years before his death.  His pulpit was right across from this and he looked at it for 14 years before he died.  The sculpture on the top is how the world saw him and the body on the bottom is how G-d sees him, the same as every other person.
We listened to the concert while sitting in the wooden seats the bishops sit in.  Boy are they uncomfortable.  So we sat in the more comfortable back seats while the angel boy choir sang for evensong.  It was too bad, but I ran out of everything and got dizzy, so we left in the middle.  I am OK, just too much in one day.  We were out and about for about 10 hours.
We spent the next day resting, except for finding a market to buy some food for dinner.  Of course that took more walking.
Hopefully, Dover castle tomorrow.

Canterbury, England

July 5
We bought a daily family bus pass.  That sentence sounds so simple.  It was not.  It took many stops yesterday finding out what to do and how to do it.
We left from our room in this neighborhood
 
             and this building (the one with the red) 
We took the bus through neighborhoods with two way streets that are only one bus wide
                       
and on a highway with no discernible speed limit    
We walked around Canterbury after finding out that there was going to be a concert by the college that is withing the Church at 3 pm.  We also found out that there was an evensong service at 5:30.  Evensong services have the boys choir of the church singing.  So we wanted to go to both.  So we had some time to kill since we arrived about 10 am.
So here is what we saw
   a street with buildings with overhangs, since it saves on property tax.
                
Lloyds Bank in Canterbury 
This is the library….Gorgeous….
Canterbury was a walled city and here is one of the towers of the wall.
                  
                                         
and another great building  
While we were in town we saw a strike parade.  The teachers are on strike to try and stop cuts to the education budget.  Sound familiar?


                                           
Did I tell you how much we love seeing and being a part of local stuff, like seeing this march and watching the parade on Sunday?  Well we sure do.
One of the fun signs we have seen