Royal Progress day 15

Day 15 Dover On to the south coast today to see the magnificent Dover castle perched high on the famous white cliffs. It was very, very windy today and we had our breath taken away by some of the gusts. It was a clear day and we could see France 22 miles away. Dover castle is huge and it has been a defensive fort since Roman times. There are really five worlds in one at Dover castle. A Roman light house, still the highest Roman structure in England today, stands right next to a Saxon Church within a Saxon walled enclosure. There are medieval tunnels dating back to the early 1200’s and scene of the siege during the barons war of 1216. There are Napoleonic era tunnels that were used in WWII as a hospital and as the headquarters of one of the most famous periods in WWII, The evacuation of the entire British Army of 338,000 men from Dunkirk in Northern France. We visited the Hospital but did not have time to see the Dunkirk part of the network. There is an exciting new addition now, there are special guided tours of the Cold war tunnels beneath all the rest of the tunnel levels, I look forward to seeing these on a future planned visit. But it was the castle keep that we came to see today, a huge imposing building built by Henry II in 1180. The setting is for Henry in residence with tapestries,beds and furniture faithfully recreated and with the log fire blazing it gave you a real feeling of what it must have been like living in those times. Today being Halloween there were kids everywhere dressed as ghosts and ghouls. They were having fun flowing the ghost trail a series of character guides telling awful tales of ghosts and murder within the castle. On to the medieval village of Lenham to spend the night in and old Tudor coaching inn and right next door there is a fabulous old pub with oak beam and log fires. Our meal was stone steaks, yes slabs of raw meat delivered sizzling to your table on a very hot granite stone. You cook it yourself as you are sitting there, no orders to the chef just you and how you want it.