Easter Adventures: Sunday

Happy Easter, everyone! Today I had a little sleep in (all this travelling and history is wearing me out a bit), but then we headed out to a place that was mentioned to us at Battle Abbey on Friday - Dover Castle. It was extra cool at Dover Castle, in that they had lots of special events on for Easter. It also has so many elements to it's history, from the 1st century Roman tower, to the 11th century church, to the adaptations made for the battalions and guns during WWI. And that's all not including the actual castle... So many different elements!

 

So we wandered the Castle, which was very busy, but also lots to see and learn. We will have to return again though, they have tours of the tunnels which already had a 1.5+ hr wait time. At least with the Heritage membership, we can go back there for free! As well as the actual castle and grounds and things, they also had a jester, special demonstrations of shooting (bows and arrows), and even a pantomime! The panto was St George and the Dragon, and was actually quite cool. The horses in particular were very impressive, prancing around.

 

After a good few hours, and lunch there too (not to mention the delicious toffee apple and spiced ciders we bought to go with the homemade marshmallows...), we decided that being in Dover, we'd better get a better look at the cliffs. So we headed to a National Trust site (not a member there though, maybe next year after we're all Heritage'd out!) to walk on the White Cliffs of Dover. Even though I lived nearby, I never actually went to Dover except to go to France, so it was cool to see a bit more of the town.

 

After our reviving walk (it was not terribly warm today, only about 12 degrees), we headed to the next closest caste, Walmer Castle and Grounds. The castle itself was really not very interesting, it was much more like a modern house on the inside, but the grounds were lovely. They even had a garden which was grown for the Queen Mother, and she visited it too! Apparently she even liked it.

 

After Walmer Castle and Grounds, we visited Deal Castle, which is in the middle of the town right next to the ocean. Walmer and Deal Castles are the same, in that they were both built in the time of Henry VIII and have an almost-flowery shape to them. This one was in much more historical (read: uninhabited) condition, and was very cool to explore with lots of levels and rooms to wander around in! I swear on the lower level, we went around more times than we should have before finding the stairs back up. This was the castle I could most imagine living in, by the seaside and everything. Maybe Heritage would be able to sell it to us?

 

Just before heading home, we drove by the Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre. It's completely in ruin, but you can still tell where all the walls and things were and really get a feel for the scope of the are and how they lived. It didn't take too long to wander around, and we actually timed it perfectly, because it started to rain just as we were leaving to go home! Perfect timing, and an excellent day.