Hullo Peter n Judy

After a long week recovering from both the marathon and seeing Charity off to Edinburgh, it was time for Peter n Judy to arrive for their stay in France and the UK with a catch up dinner on the Friday night of their arrival in London. A very pleasant dinner and catch up in the hotel restaurant before retiring to their room for a coffee and some weekend planning. A quick shout out to Kadina - I know you’re reading, and I hope Emma’s doing well now!!

A small adventure on the way home from the tube made the night rather interesting. Brief summary is that two guys coming the other way and I bumped (okay, collided) with the one who didn’t make way on the narrowed footpath. They took exception, I probably should have said something different, and when he went for something in his pocket I didn’t wait to find out what it was. Two punches and two kicks from me, before I put my two best weapons into action and I legged it the hell out of there. Unfortunately, I let one of them get a hit in, but nothing serious or worth worrying about. So other than an adrenalin rush and a half I’m fine.
Saturday was a slow day anyway, feeling a bit snuffly, so just a sloth day in the end.

Sunday, and it was off to Dover to visit Dover Castle with Peter n Judy. Good old grey misty London showed us her ‘finest’ dull weather. Coffees in hand, we set off from Waterloo East on the train for Dover and her white cliffs.
Thankfully the skies cleared somewhat on the way there to give us a good view (through the trees) of the south-east countryside under some blue sky and sunshine. That strange English haze still hung around though, all the way to the coast and beyond.

We arrived in Dover and proceeded to make our way from the train station and look for transport to the castle. Once we’d seen how high up the Castle was from the train station, Peter’s idea of taking the nearby cab was on the money. A quick 5min tour through Dover and we were at the Castle.
Entry stickers on and we began our exploration of this amazing Castle and its surrounding grounds and hidden labyrinth of tunnels.

First stop once we were through the gates was the ‘restaurant’ and I use that term loosely, for lunch. It also housed Queen Elizabeth’s “Pocket Pistol”, which you can see here (right), although she must have had one hell of a large pocket!! Also there was one of the prototype bouncing bombs from the Dambusters project/mission. Rather impressive actually.
On we went to where the castle grounds met the tops of the cliffs of Dover, and the secret WWII tunnels and their accompanying tour. Over 3miles of tunnels have been opened in three distinct levels throughout the cliffs under the castle. They were used originally in the Napoleonic wars, but were then expanded and used extensively for WWII. The entire evacuation of Dunkirk and most of the D-day invasion was co-ordinated from within these tunnels. They also included a hospital as well as quarters for personnel. Absolutely fascinating, and I couldn’t help but think of those who would enjoy this.

Well, our tour guide had told us that no photographs were allowed, but if I didn’t use my flash, nor the illuminated screen, and did a bit of dawdling at the back of the group, then you would get to see these pics of what we saw.
Eventually, we made our way back to the outside world and onto a ledge of the cliffs themselves to conclude the tour at where else but the giftshop.

From here we made our way up. Up to the Admiralty lookout for a pretty spectacular view of the Dover harbour and back towards Dover itself. We then continued around the edge of the grounds to take the Battlements walk which took us around to the main keep itself. Passing all the canons and anti-aircraft installations along the way and pondering the funny little bunkers and how they were used over the centuries. Nice views of the countryside in the hazy sun and wind. And green too!!

Once we made it back to the Keep itself, we headed inward through the grounds to check out the Roman Pharos (lighthouse) and Saxon church. The Pharos, which is the only one of two that is still standing, is over 2000years old - quite impressive even if it didn’t look all that impressive. The small Saxon church is still in full working order and kept up quite well considering its age.

Back to the Keep and through the whole thing, including many of the original parts from the 12th century. Much of it, however, was recreating the life and times of the castle in the 1500’s. Still fascinating, and with many stairs to climb and smaller rooms and places to find and discover. Like the Thomas Beckett chapel, which can be found in one corner on about the 3rd level if you venture through a small alleyway. The longdrop wasn’t particularly well placed either, even if it was the King’s for when he stayed there - which apparently Henry VIII did quite often. It was a case of “look out below” because when you looked down, you could see the walkway below!
I can just see a Monty Python skit for such a happening -
“Did you hear about Barham?”,
“No”,
”He just got crapped on by the King!”,
“Lucky Bastard!”
But I digress...

Back outside and in the Keep grounds, we discovered the heritage and history of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment Museum. Quite interesting as it showed their history throughout several centuries up to today.

That done, and it was time to make our way to the entrance/exit and then back to the train station.
Waiting for the bus, we ended up grabbing another cab, and a cheaper one at that!!
A cruisey train ride back to London and Waterloo before heading to the bank of the Thames for dinner at Giraffe again!! Another nice night and dinner together.

All up a lovely day with a couple that I’ve grown up with since a toddler. Nice to be with such familiar people who are pretty much family. It made it far easier when those thoughts kept constantly coming up about missing someone who would have really enjoyed being with us...

Thanks Peter, Thanks Judy. See you in a couple of weeks once your tour of the UK returns to London.

.

Ps.

www.justgiving.com/aussierunner - coz time’s running out to reach this target. You know you want to help out! ;)