"There'll Be Bluebirds Over..."

"...The White Cliffs of Dover"
Day ? (We're into Free Vacation Here)

Here we are into the unknown, the unplanned, the wild and weird adventures of the happily stranded. We'd been laughing at it for days, yeah. You know the old, "surely it will be over when we have to go" bit. The old saying of "just our luck" and "back to reality" shenanigans. But here we were passing through Londontown and it was strange. We probably shouldn't have even bothered (or left Liverpool for that matter {this will be a running theme, so get used to it [Will be? Really? Cos this is only like the third time you've said it already.]}) going to the airport, but yeah we did. Now Heathrow is one of the World's busiest airports, so normally it's all people and traffic and cabs and buses and planes flying all over, but not as we blew through town. It was like '28 Days Later' or whatever, like no one, no how, nothing. There was everything but the tumbleweeds as far as ghost towns go.



Up first Dover Castle, there's part of it up there. Quite cool and pretty amazing when you think of the things that have gone down here. From way back when to World War II to I think it was 'round the '60 or so when it stopped having a full-time garrison. There are still guns that helped the boys in the air fight The Battle of Britain. Not to mention the Kings and Queens and all their rot that lived and presided here. The castle is a sprawling complex at the top of the hill it even has a moat (no water though, nor beast) and secret passages and the like. We've got tons more pictures, but to save time and space I thought I paint in broad strokes. But I do have to say it is one of the better castles that I have ever been too (Take that Nottingham, you big bloody let down you) maybe it was cos we didn't go in expecting too much (again Nottingham) so we were pleasantly surprised. I'll let the Escher-eske picture below speak for itself.



Next up were the Secret Wartime Tunnels, and we are not just talking World War II here. These tunnels were actually used during the Peninsular Wars against that ol' frog basta' Napoleon, and expanded upon over the years and years after that. The Dunkirk rescue operation was planned and controlled from these tunnels dug into the White Cliffs. There's hospitals, and kitchens, and radio rooms, all that. Even some graffiti from the 1800's by a woman. (Now what would a woman being doing down the tunnels that were a garrison for troops? Your answers on a post card, yeah.) With twists and turns, audio and flickering lights it was quite the cool place to be.


Here is one of the more obvious windows near the entrance, along with the venting. There are also windows and such in the face of the cliff, but in order to get pictures of them you'd have to be on one of the Ferries (that dock just down the cliffs) and they were full up with people getting off the island or trying to get back to ol' Blighty. (I've got some pictures of the port, and unlike the airport it was busy, busy, busy (so don't bother me {a joke for like 4-5 people there}).



Here are me and the wife, and it's actually an optical illusion, we didn't climb down to the bottom. I don't think you can. I know that when we were at the edge looking down and all, I got a little nervie. Most sane people would I think (though most prob'ly wouldn't admit it) but when you look down at the churning sea and the long way down, yeah nervie.



Call me a Romantic, or a Big Fekin Dork... but it won't hurt my feelings cos this one here is actually one of my favorites. I know I'm a big sap, but whatever I love the missus and our adventures so...

Cheers,
g