Once Upon a Time

Dover Castle! Here we are at the beach just below the

castle; Dover has a very busy ferry port.

The coast of France is only about 55 miles

away.

If you enlarge this picture and look just beyond the harbor wall you can see the coast of France. Not that I'm promoting paying any attention to France...but some of you might care to look.

Our little sunny girl.Up the hill to the castle keep. The castle was built in the late 12th century and has been a very important place concerning England's defense. The British sure do have a curious way of keeping secrets. "Commander, I put the sign up over the entrance to the secrect tunnels. Are you sure the Germans don't know how to speak English?" Up on the hill overlooking the ferry harbor. Pretty much the same as last picture, except I'm in this one. It was a beautiful day, clear and sunny; later in the evening it got rainy. Into the keep (the keep is the part of the castle where the king holds residence). The throne room (in case you hadn't figured that out for yourself). The stairwell to the roof top. This picture shows something amazing...the oldest building in U.K. The building right in the center of the picture, with the square tower, is an old Anglo-Saxon church. Just to the right of the church, it almost looks as though it is part of the same building, is a round building with no roof. This is the Roman Pharos, a light house. I forget exactly how old it is, but I believe the Romans were here in the second century A.D. We took this picture and the next one from the top of the castle keep.

I wish I could remember more of the history of the castle. It has been used as a strategic defense head quarters many times during England's past. The most recent was during World War II. The secret war time tunnels were a command post. They also built a hospital underground for the wounded soldiers. You are not allowed to take pictures in the tunnels, that is why we have none. The second day of our trip we had a camera malfunction and so we missed many breathtaking, scenic opportunities to capture :(. If you take a few minutes to look up Dover Castle on the web you'll be amazed with it's history. We did take a hike along the famous white cliffs of Dover but that was on the second day so we have no pictures of that.