This last weekend, Sam and I decided to do a day trip to go see some castles. We were so excited but on our way there, the main motorway that we needed to get on was closed for several miles. Apparently if there is an accident or spill or something, the British will close the entire motorway for hours on end for miles and miles. Where in the States we at least allow traffic to continue in the other lane. So weird and frustrating! But thank goodness for our GPS, we were able to navigate ourselves through all these small English villages and small country roads. But eventually we finally arrived at Dover Castle, which is right on the coast. It was huge!
Dover Castle: what we saw as we were parking
We had to park in a overflow field since there were so many cars there already. So once we parked we headed up the hill to explore this mighty fortress.
Almost there...
That drawbridge on the right is the entrance to the Castle
My very own Knight in Shining Armour waits... :)
View from the Castle's Entrance
We were a bit disappointed though with the inside of the castle. The structure itself was spectacular but the way the castles was "decorated" inside was really cheesy. It felt like pee wee's play house or something. Just not very authentic looking. Sam said he thought it looked like a cartoon. They used really bright blues, yellows and reds. I don't know, I guess for such a grand castle I would assume they would want to make it look "real" on the inside.
View from the highest tower
View from the highest tower
(look close, you might see France across the English channel)
English Countryside
A chapel and on the right-hand side of the chapel (the tower looking building)
is a light house built by the Romans
Can you see France?
Rocky was there visiting too I guess :)
(The kitchen inside the castle)
The Chapel
The Outer wall of the Castle:
This is where the cannons were and those hut looking things
are where they kept extra guns and ammo
The other side of the chapel and to the left is the light house
The mote
Another view of the Castle
Beautiful English Countryside
Sam shooting down the bad guys
The place where you can get on a ferry to head over to France
The Officers' Mansion
The ferries to France
(I was so surprise at how "tropical" the water looked)
We went on a tour of these tunnels,
but we weren't allowed to take any pictures.
But it was pretty cool because these tunnels were top secret and built all within the cliffs of Dover. Definitely a "boy" tour but I still thought it was very interesting. :)
So after spending several hours at Dover, we started to head to another castle called Leeds Castle. I was so excited because I had done some research on it and it looked amazing! But as you probably already guessed, another motorway was closed (arg) and so we were stuck in really bad traffic trying to wined our way through yet some more small villages. Plus it started raining pretty hard and things were just not working in our favor. So long story short, we didn't make it to Leeds Castle, but Sam promises me that he'll take me back. Here's a pic of the castle from the website.
So on our long way home, Sam felt bad about Leeds, so we decided to drive to a town called Canterbury and go and see St. Augustine's Abbey. It was pretty neat. I didn't realize that it was all in ruins though. For some reason I thought there was still a chapel that you could go into. But oh well, it was still really interesting.
So other than our trip this weekend, not too much for is new. Sam's still waiting to fly, our fingers are crossed for hopefully next week sometime. He has gotten to do a few sims, so that been nice. I've just been hanging out with some of the wives. I've really gotten into going to auctions and finding some really unique antiques and stuff. Who knew I'd like that? I haven't bought much yet...Sam's thankful for that :) But eventually I'd like to find a wardrobe and a chest or something. But we'll see.
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