Driving, A Church, A Castle and Chalky Cliffs

We spent last weekend driving down to Canterbury and Dover, this was 2 places Kevin wanted to check out for a while.  This whole driving thing here always gets me a little stressed out.  Ok, it gets me very stressed out.  Kevin and I both aren't the best at navigating the streets of London and with most of the street signage on the sides of buildings it's hard to know which street is coming up until you're almost past it.  That means some of the signs aren't visible as it's a newer building and they didn't put up the street sign back up.  Also, some of the signs are very low to the ground or some are painted on the street itself and after time it's worn out and faded.  We don't own a talking Sat Nav, that's what they call a GPS here, basically because driving around here isn't worth the expense for us.  I'm sure having one of those would make it less stressful.

We eventually get out of London and onto the motor way heading southeast with the doggies in the back seat sleeping.  The country side is very lush, green fields and huge patches of trees all around us.  Produce in the fields have began to be harvested and it's still a welcomed change from the non-stop concrete in London.  We have a little rain on the way but that too is no big deal as we're leaving the city behind us.

Canterbury is very much like a bunch of other towns we've visited.  You have all the usual items.  Cobble stone streets, pubs, curio shops, charity shops, kebab shops, churches and water ways.  Canterbury is the seat of the Anglican Religion and they have a huge church there to prove it.  They call it the Mother Church and it is pretty impressive.  We've seen loads of churches in many countries in Europe and this one ranks up there.  What made this one more unique to me is how there are different levels inside.  You have to walk up to get to different parts inside.  Obviously they didn't think of people in wheelchairs back in the 500's. 

Walking through the town was nice, it was busy with tourist even with the potential of rain.  The walk next to the water way was peaceful and the dogs really enjoyed the area.

Back on the road later in the day going farther south to Dover a little more rain but not too bad, it cleared up by the time we got there.  As you drive up to Dover you can't help but notice this massive castle on the hill top.  It dominates the sky.  We found our B&B for the night and checked in then went for a walk into the main street just to wear down the dogs and check things out.  The place is a ghost town at 6pm on a Saturday night.  We were told by a friend about this and saw the proof.  It's really strange how it was deserted!  Again the same things you'd find in any town, cobble stone streets, charity shops.....but no people walking around.  I guess no one lives in the center of town.

Sunday morning after breakfast we drove up to the castle and walked the grounds with the dogs, this was to wear them out a bit so we could go do the 'inside' things where we couldn't take them.  Sadly the 'inside' things were kind of lame.  Walking the grounds and seeing the structures were much more impressive for me.  There are basically 4 different eras on the grounds, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, medieval, and Georgian.  The Romans used the location and left a lighthouse tower behind, the Anglo-Saxons built a church next to the tower, Henry II built a castle higher up and farther back from the ocean and then during the Georgian buildings used later in WWII and up until 1984.

We finished exploring the Great Tower and went back to the car to get the dogs for our long walk along the White Cliffs.  Word of warning....wear hiking shoes as this is mostly uneven ground and hard on the feet.  We started our walk going east towards a light house, we were told it would be 45 minutes one way.  The worn paths get you pretty close to the edge in some places and other places you're about 30 yards back which is good for me because I don't want to think about slipping off into the fridge ocean 350 feet below.  We let both dogs off leash for a bit and it was lots of fun watching Bentley and Pepper bounding through the long grass.  This isn't something they get to do often.  We didn't make it to the lighthouse because it's really far.  Also, I'm not one to go hiking through a pasture and thinking 'this is fun!'.  I'd rather do a little and see the rest from a tram...with a beer.

From the cliffs and pretty much any point of the castle you can see out to the ocean and France beyond.  It was a beautiful day, big puffy clouds and mostly sunny and of course windy.  The ocean ferries were coming and going from the port heading to France and other parts of Northern Europe.  We still have to find a way to get the dogs over to the continent and this should work out for us.

We both said the same thing once we got home....."Check"  saw the White Cliffs of Dover.