Laura's Last Weekend - Dover Castle

Laura really wanted to get to Ireland or France, but plane tickets, which can often be as cheap as $10 round trip (ryanair.com) from London to other European commnities, were not at all cheap so we needed to come up with a plan B. We decided to make the 1.5 hour drive to the coast to see the famous "White Cliffs of Dover" and tour Dover Castle. We arrived on Saturday and explored the town until we could check into our bed and breakfast.

Left: A view of one of the large ferries that makes the trip across the English Channel to France and back.

Right: The boardwalk lined with elegant old apartment buildings.

Laura and I thought we'd go out for one last night on the town--unfortunately, it was the first of many times that I would discover that restaurants in England do not operate during "normal" business hours. Generally speaking, you can't eat out at just any old time of the day--you won't find anything like an Applebee's or a Red Robin, something open all day and night. If you're going to eat out, you need to plan to eat breakfast from 7:30 to 9:00, lunch from 11:00 - 1:00, and restaurants don't open again for dinner until 6:00 p.m., earliest, and often only serve food for an hour or two, then switch to alcohol only. That may not sound like a big deal, but if you have kids and need to eat early, or you happen to be off-schedule in your meals, you're pretty much out of luck. So what does this mean? We couldn't find a place serving food when we were ready to eat at 8:00 p.m.--after walking the High Street for what felt like hours, we discovered that the entire town was absolutely bursting at the seams with young, rowdy, drunk college students. We found a random bar that was still serving food, spent an hour gawking at the "pick-up" scene, then called it a night. Talk about feeling old--I really did that night!

The next day, we spent several hours at Dover Castle, up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and a site of historical importance. Portions of the castle were built during Roman times, added to after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and used throughout history up through World War II. Although I'm not a huge war history buff, it was really interesting to tour the "secret wartime tunnels" and the undergound hospital built into the cliffs and used during the way. If you are interested in reading more about it:
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.14571

Left: A small portion of Dover Castle added in the 1700's.

Right: "Secret" wartime tunnels added to the cliffs during WWII.

View from Dover Castle.